Housing Adequacy: A Well-being Indicator for Elderly Households in Southern U.S. Communities

This study examined housing adequacy of elderly households aged 65 years and older in southern communities in the United States. Housing adequacy was considered as a well-being indicator for the elderly households. The researchers developed a model which hypothesized a relationship between selected demographic and housing variables (which represent American housing norms and restraints) and housing inadequacy. The 2011 American Housing Survey (AHS) National and Metropolitan Data were used for analysis. The results consist of statistics on the demographic and housing characteristics of the 7,675 elderly householders and the results of binary logistic regression. The results of the regression showed that elderly households in southern communities were more likely to live in inadequate housing if they had lower incomes, more household members, or low housing satisfaction; were Blacks or Hispanics or not married; or lived in housing built before the 1970s, in rural areas, or the West South Central areas, or in a smaller structure size. This analysis of the newly released 2011 AHS data is important because of its post-housing-crisis perspective. © 2014 American Association of Family and Consumer Sciences.