ABSTRACT
As negative equity continued well into the 1990s as a problem facing many home owners, policymakers and analysts became concerned about the longer term impacts on attitudes and housing market behaviour. The impact of the housing market recession and negative equity on the capacity to move can thus be regarded as one of the main problems for home owners and one which has done most to reduce positive views about home ownership. The impacts of the changes in the owner occupied market coalesced with other aspects of family and employment change to produce different consequences for different groups. Home ownership was most likely to be associated with positive words or phrases like independence, comfort, sense of security but there was also a range of negative responses, such as expensive, responsibility and worry. Over a number of years the British Social Attitudes Survey has asked people how they would advise a hypothetical newly-married couple, both in secure jobs, about house purchase.
