Housing Poverty among Low-income Middle-Aged Households and the Influencing Characteristics Reflected in the Korea Housing Survey 2021

This study analyzed the influences on housing poverty among low-income middle-aged households in Korea. Using microdata from the Korea Housing Survey 2021, we analyzed whether low-income households headed by 40-64 year old persons with the bottom 40% income lived in housing poverty. We also analyzed the influences on this situation through a series of discriminant analyses. The main findings are as follows. First, 22.7% of the participants lived in housing poverty, where 9.3% resided in indecent living conditions, 5.2% lived in overcrowded houses, and 2.8% perceived housing costs to be a burden. Second, a discriminant analysis with housing poverty as the dependent variable showed that a discriminant function consisting of a linear combination of twelve independent variables representing seven household characteristics could determine the housing poverty status of low-income middle-aged households with 74.6% accuracy. Also, tenure type had the greatest influence on housing poverty. Third, a household with a tenure type other than ownership, Jeonse rental, and monthly rent with deposit, male householder, householder aged 40-54 years or one with a high school diploma or lower educational attainment, household with two or more persons excluding married-couple-only households, and household living in Seoul, Incheon, or Gyeonggi-do were more likely to live in housing poverty. This suggests that, more policy and research attention should be paid to addressing the housing welfare of middle-aged households, just as that of young and elderly households.