Residential Mobility Patterns of Elderly-Leaving the House for an Apartment

摘要

One hypothesis is that, in Sweden, the elderly today are more willing to change residence to accommodate for changing lifestyles and poorer health than in earlier generations. If so, the elderly will change their type of tenure from owner occupation to tenant co-operative or rental housing, which includes more services for residents. The aim of this study is to discover if elderly people move to apartments after leaving single-family housing that they own. Mobility patterns of those born in the 1920s, 1930s and 1940s are analysed to identify characteristics of stayers and movers, and to determine to what extent the elderly move to rental and tenant cooperative apartments. The analysis is cross-sectional using a register database comprising the Swedish population. Moves were followed between 2001 and 2006. The majority remained in their current dwelling but almost one-quarter moved. Of those, a smaller number moved from owner-occupied housing to a tenant co-operative or rental apartment.