Severe and persistent housing instability: examining low-income households’ residential mobility trajectories in the United States

Figures & data

Table 1. Categories of housing instability incidents based on three dimensions of residential mobility.

Category	Number of Observations	Explanation	Note
Staying	12,282	A household does not move between two consecutive PSID surveys.	Transient mobility: Residential moves that occur more than one time between two consecutive PSID surveys, approximately a two-year gap Involuntary mobility: Residential moves due to involuntary reasons including demolition, eviction, health-related reasons, divorce, homelessness, other involuntary reasons Nonnormative mobility: Residential moves to unaffordable (paying more than 50% of household income for housing-related costs), overcrowded (the number of household members per room is equal to or larger than 1.5), or doubled-up housing (living with another family or another nonfamily household without paying rent)
Conventional mobility	2,374	A household moves, and the move is not any of the following types of residential mobility: (1) transient mobility, (2) involuntary mobility, and (3) nonnormative mobility.
Housing instability	3,077	A household moves, and the move belongs to at least one of the following types of residential mobility: (1) transient mobility, (2) involuntary mobility, and (3) nonnormative mobility.
Severe housing instability	1,227	A household moves, and the move belongs to either or both of the following two conditions: 1. A household moves more than three times between two consecutive PSID surveys. 2. A household moves more than one time between two consecutive PSID surveys, and their last move during the period is either involuntary mobility, nonnormative mobility, or both.

Note: Housing-related costs indicate the total amount of rent or mortgage payments, and utility costs for electricity, heating, water, sewer, and others per month. Doubled-up situations indicate two conditions: (1) where a household did not own or rent a house and lived with at least one family adult member who is neither a householder nor a marriage partner, or a nonfamily member, or (2) where a household reported that the household rented a house but paid no rent for the house, and lived with at least one family adult member who is neither a householder nor a marriage partner, or a nonfamily member.

Figure 1. Mobility sequences of PSID sample households.

Table 2. Four types of residential trajectories among low-income households.

Trajectory Category	Weighted		Not Weighted
	Freq.	Percent	Freq.	Percent
Type 1. Consistently stably housed households	6,372.45	39.65	6,920	36.5
Type 2. Mostly stably housed households	4,982.67	31	6,048	31.9
Type 3. Mostly unstably housed households	3,092.47	19.24	3,776	19.92
Type 4. Chronically unstably housed households	1,624.41	10.11	2,216	11.69
Total	16,072	100	18,960	100

Note: The weighted frequencies are based on PSID longitudinal household weights in 2003.

Table 3. The average numbers of housing instability statues from 2003 to 2017.

Trajectory Category	The average number of events from 2003 to 2017
	Staying	Conventional mobility	Housing instability	Severe housing instability
Type 1. Consistently stably housed households	7.436	0.564	0.000	0.000
Type 2. Mostly stably housed households	5.321	1.233	1.167	0.279
Type 3. Mostly unstably housed households	3.110	1.492	2.485	0.913
Type 4. Chronically unstably housed households	1.296	0.903	3.690	2.112

Table 4. Wave-to-wave transitions for all combinations of housing instability statuses at two different times.

Categories of housing instability statuses		Mobility status at baseline (t)
		Staying	Conventional mobility	Housing instability	Severe housing instability	Total
Mobility status approximately two years ago (t-1)	Staying	8,564	884	904	241	10,593
		0.808	0.083	0.085	0.023	1.000
	Conventional mobility	1,064	461	402	146	2,073
		0.513	0.222	0.194	0.070	1.000
	Housing instability	1,047	548	829	353	2,777
		0.377	0.197	0.299	0.127	1.000
	Severe housing instability	260	203	429	255	1,147
		0.227	0.177	0.374	0.222	1.000
	Total	10,935	2,096	2,564	995	16,590
		1.925	0.680	0.952	0.443	4.000
Mobility status approximately four years ago (t-2)	Staying	7,040	780	857	247	8,924
		0.789	0.087	0.096	0.028	1.000
	Conventional mobility	976	365	332	116	1,789
		0.546	0.204	0.186	0.065	1.000
	Housing instability	1,127	423	651	280	2,481
		0.454	0.170	0.262	0.113	1.000
	Severe housing instability	368	186	276	196	1,026
		0.359	0.181	0.269	0.191	1.000
	Total	9,511	1,754	2,116	839	14,220
		2.147	0.643	0.813	0.396	4.000
Mobility status approximately six years ago (t-3)	Staying	5,786	657	653	202	7,298
		0.793	0.090	0.089	0.028	1.000
	Conventional mobility	864	261	276	95	1,496
		0.578	0.174	0.184	0.064	1.000
	Housing instability	1,072	353	527	209	2,161
		0.496	0.163	0.244	0.097	1.000
	Severe housing instability	351	179	237	128	895
		0.392	0.200	0.265	0.143	1.000
	Total	8,073	1,450	1,693	634	11,850
		2.259	0.628	0.783	0.331	4.000

Note: The numbers over 20% are underlined and presented in bold.

Figure 2. A typology of mobility sequences.

Table 5. Logistic Regression Results.

Variables	Model 1			Model 2			Model 3
	Mostly stably housed households (=1) vs. Consistently stably housed households (=0)			Mostly unstably housed households (=1) vs. Mostly stably housed households (=0)			Chronically unstably housed households (=1) vs. Mostly unstably housed households (=0)
	Coefficient		SE	Coefficient		SE	Coefficient		SE
Female dummy (ref. male)	−0.121		0.166	0.331	*	0.168	−0.301		0.204
Race (ref. Non-Hispanic White)
Black	−0.011		0.147	−0.712	***	0.171	0.090		0.221
Latino	−0.124		0.253	−0.409		0.323	0.007		0.528
Asian	−0.514		0.476	−0.440		0.739	(Omitted)
Other race	0.131		0.385	−0.741	+	0.428	−1.339		0.835
Partnership trajectory between 2003 and 2009 (ref. stable couple)
Enter couple	0.422		0.258	−0.216		0.275	−0.022		0.401
Exit couple	(Omitted)			(Omitted)			(Omitted)
Widowed, divorced, or separated	0.508	*	0.207	−0.165		0.257	0.442		0.384
Fluctuate between couple and single	0.623	*	0.290	−0.216		0.292	0.708	+	0.401
Stable single	0.228		0.216	−0.209		0.250	0.414		0.350
Presence of dependent children in household between 2003 and 2009 (ref. never present)
Always children	0.409	*	0.166	0.046		0.186	−0.414	+	0.234
No children – children	(Omitted)			(Omitted)			(Omitted)
Children – no children	0.312		0.196	−0.028		0.236	−0.266		0.303
Fluctuate between children and no children	0.382		0.248	0.113		0.228	−0.251		0.269
Housing tenure trajectory between 2003 and 2009 (ref. stable homeowner)
Stable renter	1.215	***	0.162	1.492	***	0.251	0.922		0.658
Enter ownership	1.237	***	0.196	0.792	**	0.276	0.334		0.699
Exit ownership	(Omitted)			(Omitted)			(Omitted)
Fluctuate between renting and owning	1.206	***	0.206	1.428	***	0.265	0.705		0.666
Average log household income between 2003 and 2009	−0.151		0.081	−0.027		0.070	−0.016		0.081
Average log household wealth between 2003 and 2009	0.041		0.024	−0.078	**	0.027	−0.056		0.036
Age of respondent in 2003 (ref. age below 30)
30-49	−0.926	***	0.191	−0.733	***	0.163	−0.860	***	0.201
50-64	−1.340	***	0.235	−1.119	***	0.255	−1.493	***	0.397
Age over 65	−1.550	***	0.322	−1.773	*	0.444	−2.073	*	0.808
Education attainment (ref. below 12 years)
Above 12 years	0.334	+	0.177	0.330		0.206	−0.485	*	0.234
Household employment structure trajectory between 2003 and 2009 (ref. stable one- or two-income household)
Unstable one-income household (whose member is occasionally unemployed)	0.517	*	0.215	0.276		0.209	0.108		0.286
Enter no-income household	0.009		0.189	0.035		0.223	0.229		0.295
Exit no-income household	0.002		0.268	0.695	**	0.244	−0.075		0.314
Fluctuate between one- and no-income household	−0.106		0.227	0.635	**	0.225	0.222		0.272
No-income household	0.073		0.247	0.221		0.316	0.585		0.383
Health condition trajectory between 2003 and 2009 (ref. no member with health problem)
Stably having a member with health problem	0.147		0.235	−0.413		0.289	0.738	*	0.353
Enter a household with a member with health problem	0.319		0.198	−0.274		0.241	0.742	*	0.295
Exit a household with a member with health problem	0.007		0.285	0.177		0.321	0.452		0.353
Fluctuate between a household with and without a member with health problem	0.394	*	0.169	−0.091		0.191	0.441	+	0.235
Housing assistance trajectory between 2003 and 2009 (ref. never housing assistance)
Receiving housing assistance at least once	0.313		0.204	−0.044		0.184	0.347		0.220
Neighborhood trajectory between 2003 and 2009 (ref. Stably living outside of distressed neighborhoods)
Stably living in distressed neighborhoods	−0.579	+	0.341	−0.083		0.303	−0.443		0.328
Enter distressed neighborhoods	0.747	**	0.236	0.214		0.214	0.113		0.267
Exit distressed neighborhoods	0.531		0.361	0.029		0.309	0.560	+	0.318
Move in and out of distressed neighborhoods	0.784	*	0.347	0.591	*	0.243	0.442	+	0.262
Lambda (Inverse Mills Ratio)	1.187	***	0.198	0.537	**	0.168	0.547	**	0.199
Constant	0.145		0.862	−0.578		0.789	−0.779		1.073
N	1,621			1,228			746
Log likelihood	−897.235			−703.007			123.370
Pseudo R2	0.199			0.141			0.125

Note: +p < 0.1, *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01, ***p < 0.001.

Table

Variable Name	Mean	S.E.
Housing instability experience
Staying	0.568	0.495
Conventional move	0.117	0.322
Housing instability	0.216	0.412
Severe housing instability	0.098	0.297
Housing instability trajectory
Consistently stably housed households	0.365	0.482
Mostly stably housed households	0.319	0.466
Mostly unstably housed households	0.199	0.399
Chronically unstably housed households	0.117	0.321
Female dummy (ref. male)	0.465	0.499
Race
Non-Hispanic White	0.419	0.493
Black	0.464	0.497
Latino	0.062	0.241
Asian	0.012	0.108
Other race	0.023	0.149
Partnership trajectory during panel periods
Stable couple	0.247	0.431
Enter couple	0.127	0.333
Widowed, divorced, or separated	0.231	0.421
Fluctuate between couple and single	0.174	0.379
Stable single	0.219	0.414
Presence of dependent children in household
Never present	0.353	0.478
Always children	0.180	0.384
No children – children	–	–
Children – no children	0.259	0.438
Fluctuate between children and no children	0.209	0.407
Housing tenure trajectory
Stable renter	0.316	0.465
Stable homeowner	0.281	0.449
Enter ownership	0.140	0.347
Exit ownership	–	–
Fluctuate between renting and owning	0.264	0.441
Household income
Log household income	10.100	1.051
Household wealth
Log total household wealth	7.539	3.231
Age of respondent in 2003
Under 30	0.262	0.440
30-49	0.457	0.498
50-64	0.195	0.396
Over 65	0.086	0.280
Education attainment trajectory
Below 12 years	0.166	0.372
Above 12 years	0.834	0.372
Household employment structure trajectory
Stable one- or two-income household	0.232	0.422
Unstable one-income household (whose member is occasionally unemployed)	0.114	0.317
No-income household	0.115	0.319
Enter no-income household	0.173	0.378
Exit no-income household	0.045	0.207
Fluctuate between one- and no-income household	0.322	0.467
Health condition trajectory
No member with health problem	0.427	0.495
Stably having a member with health problem	0.046	0.210
Enter a household with a member with health problem	0.094	0.292
Exit a household with a member with health problem	0.032	0.175
Fluctuate between a household with and without a member with health problem	0.401	0.490
Housing assistance trajectory
Never housing assistance	0.841	0.365
Receiving housing assistance at least once	0.159	0.365
Neighborhood trajectory
Stably living in distressed neighborhoods	0.029	0.168
Stably living outside of distressed neighborhoods	0.608	0.488
Enter distressed neighborhoods	0.086	0.280
Exit distressed neighborhoods	0.060	0.238
Move in and out of distressed neighborhoods	0.180	0.384
N	18,960 observations (2,370 households)

Table

Variable Name	Coeff.		S.E.
Dependent variable: Whether an observation is selected in the analytic sample
Female dummy (ref. male)	0.106		0.065
Race (ref. Non-Hispanic White)
Black	0.122		0.075
Latino	0.139		0.136
Asian	−0.111		0.257
Other race	0.151		0.196
Partnership trajectory between 2003 and 2017 (ref. stable couple)
Enter couple	−0.099		0.101
Exit couple	(Omitted)
Widowed, divorced, or separated	0.958	***	0.096
Fluctuate between couple and single	−0.716	**	0.068
Stable single	0.378	***	0.084
Presence of dependent children in household between 2003 and 2017 (ref. never present)
Always children
No children – children
Children – no children	0.983	***	0.113
Fluctuate between children and no children	−1.137	***	0.066
Housing tenure trajectory between 2003 and 2017 (ref. stable homeowner)
Stable renter	−8.045		167.882
Enter ownership	−6.730		167.882
Exit ownership
Fluctuate between renting and owning	−8.201		167.882
Average log household income between 2003 and 2017	0.029		0.031
Average log household wealth between 2003 and 2017	−0.001		0.012
Age of respondent in 2003 (ref. age over 65)
under 30	1.751	***	0.126
30-49	1.265	***	0.117
50-64	1.141	***	0.125
Education attainment (ref. below 12 years)
Above 12 years	0.186	*	0.080
Household employment structure trajectory between 2003 and 2017 (ref. stable one- or two-income household)
Unstable one-income household (whose member is occasionally unemployed)	−0.090		0.107
Enter no-income household	−0.671	***	0.104
Exit no-income household	1.509	**	0.510
Fluctuate between one- and no-income household	−1.292	***	0.079
No-income household	−0.078		0.120
Health condition trajectory between 2003 and 2017 (ref. no member with health problem)
Stably having a member with health problem	−0.502	***	0.131
Enter a household with a member with health problem	0.282	**	0.106
Exit a household with a member with health problem	−0.519	***	0.144
Fluctuate between a household with and without a member with health problem	0.517	**	0.072
Housing assistance trajectory between 2003 and 2017 (ref. never housing assistance)
Receiving housing assistance at least once	0.087	**	0.086
Neighborhood trajectory between 2003 and 2009 (ref. Stably living outside of distressed neighborhoods)
Stably living in distressed neighborhoods	−0.491	***	0.109
Enter distressed neighborhoods	0.271	**	0.093
Exit distressed neighborhoods
Move in and out of distressed neighborhoods	0.519	***	0.082
Constant	7.197	***	167.883
N	4,141
Log likelihood	−1169.600
Pseudo R2	0.586