TENURE CHANGES IN THE CONTEXT OF MICROLEVEL FAMILY AND MACROLEVEL ECONOMIC SHIFTS

Almost all the work to date on tenure changes, specifically the move f rom rent to own, has been derived from cross-sectional analysis of thi s important housing market decision. Economists have emphasised the in vestment nature of the housing consumption decision, while demographer s and geographers have investigated tenure change in relationship to t he demographic characteristics of the household. Now, the developing n otions of life-course analysis and the availability of longer panel se ries enable us to investigate not just the demographic relatives of te nure change, but the critical aspects of timing as well. Specifically, many couples choose to buy and make the transition to a family within 2-3 years. We show also that tenure change is influenced by both spat ial and temporal economic contexts.