Residential mobility in context: Interpreting behavior in the housing market

Residential mobility is the process whereby individuals and households adjust their locations in cities. These moves, in the aggregate, change neighborhoods as well as providing specific housing outcomes for households and families as a result of the move. The literature on residential change has evolved from cross-sectional studies of family structure and their housing circumstances, to life course analyses of the motivations for moving, the contexts in which the moves occur, and the intersection of life course change and housing choice. The combined work of demographers, geographers, economists and sociologists has provided a much clearer and more nuanced understanding of behavior in the housing market than was possible with cross-sectional analyses. This paper reviews the evolution of life course approaches to residential mobility and discusses the current state of the research literature.