Beyond Households: Regional Determinants Of Housing Instability Among Low-Income Renters In The United States

Scholars have increasingly highlighted housing instability, often represented by negative forms of residential mobility, as a growing problem in the United States. However, little empirical evidence exists about the role of regional conditions in making low-income renter households more vulnerable to housing instability. This paper examines the regional determinants of housing instability by analyzing Panel Study of Income Dynamics data uniquely combined with several secondary data sources. This study confirms that a significant regional variation in the likelihood of experiencing housing instability exists across metropolitan areas, even when all measurable household-level characteristics are controlled. The results reveal that low-income renter households are likely to experience housing instability in metropolitan areas where the poverty rate and the degree of automobile dependency are high. Notably, low-income renter households are placed at a heightened risk of housing instability when they have no private vehicle and reside in highly automobile-dependent metropolitan areas.