Housing Wealth and Household Portfolios in an Ageing Society

Housing is one of the most important consumption goods, also for the elderly. For owner–occupiers, housing equity is moreover usually the most important asset in their investment portfolio, and hence, household wealth of the elderly is extremely sensitive to developments on the housing market. This panel paper surveys the literature on housing as a consumption good and asset category over the life cycle and moreover presents stylised facts on the housing market behavior of Dutch households over their life cycle. Although many of the issues discussed also occur in other countries, the Dutch housing market is used as a background o the review.