Housing quality of U.S. elderly households: does aging in place matter?

Abstract

This article investigates whether older people who have lived longer in their dwellings are more likely to occupy physically deficient accommodations. It analyzes data from the 1987 American Housing Survey describing the housing conditions of 12,859 aged 60-and-older households. A multiple regression analysis assessed whether length of residential occupancy significantly influenced housing quality after controlling for other likely influences such as building age, chronological age, household composition, race/ethnicity, socioeconomic status, and location. Overall, length of residence was a relatively poor predictor of housing quality, and only certain subgroups of longtime owners and renters were more likely to occupy physically deficient dwellings.