Women have final say when it comes to moving home

November 4, 2009

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  • Married couples are more likely to leave a neighbourhood if the woman dislikes it than if her husband has a problem.
  • Married couples are more likely to leave a neighbourhood if the woman dislikes it than if her husband has a problem. Researchers believe this may be because the woman spends more time there.
  • The decision is more to do with the perception of a neighbourhood than its reality, according to the study from Essex University.
  • More than 4,000 households in 30,000 areas across the country were surveyed, with the research finding a “big difference” between the sexes when it came to influencing decisions about whether to re-locate.
  • The team looked at whether people moved for subjective reasons such as liking their neighbourhood – or used more “established objective criteria” such as crime rates and employment opportunities.

Head researcher Dr Mark Taylor said: “Couples were more likely to move if the woman disliked the neighbourhood.

“The study does not tell us why that is, but we can make some educated guesses.

“Mine would be that it is about relative amounts of time spent in the home or neighbourhood. On average, it is the woman who spends more time there.”

The study, published as part of a research paper called ‘Residential mobility, neighbourhood quality, and life-course events’ also found that for singles and couples, many ‘life-course events’ such as taking up a new job, partnership break-up, a child leaving home and leaving the parental home were associated with moving house.

Among the “objective” measures of neighbourhood deprivation, crime and the quality of the local environment both within and beyond the home were most important, the researchers added.

Ceasing to live with parents or having a child leave home was associated with single people moving into more deprived neighbourhoods.

“Life-course events like having a baby, losing a job, or splitting up are often associated with moving house,” Dr. Taylor added.

“But not much is known about the effect that these types of events have on whether people move to a ‘better’ or ‘worse’ neighbourhood.

“This is quite surprising because research suggests that neighbourhood characteristics influence important outcomes such as life satisfaction, health, and employment.”

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