A Study on the Housing Characteristics of Double-Income Young Households with No Children

This study examined the housing status of childless and dual-income youth households through the Youth Panel 2007 Cohort 6‒14 (2012‒2020) data of the Korea Employment Information Service and analyzed childlessness and dual-income effects on housing types (ownership and apartment occupancy). The main results showed that the distribution of childless and dual-income youth households increased by 15.3%p from 26.1% in 2012 to 41.4% in 2020 over eight years. On the other hand, households with children decreased by 15.3%p in the same period. In addition, the distribution of dual-income youth households increased by 15.4%p from 35.3% in 2012 to 50.7% in 2020 over eight years. In the housing types of the dual-income households, the ownership rate slightly decreased but the apartment occupancy rate increased from 64.9% to 73.6%. The childless and dual-income group has no burden of child-rearing expenses and high disposable incomes so that it is relatively easy to secure funds for purchasing a home and have the ability to repay loans, which means that there is a high possibility of owning a home. In addition, based on stable employment and economic power, they prefer owning a home to renting in order to reduce long-term housing costs and have many opportunities to utilize the government’s housing finance supports. Now that accessibility to working places is important, they tend to choose apartments in areas with convenient transportation and good infrastructures. As the number of childless and dual-income youth households is expected to gradually grow in the future, housing supports for them should develop and change with broad aids and flexible plans.