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In the life cycle model of consumption and saving, homeownership is an important vehicle for horizontal redistribution. Households accumulate wealth in owner-occupied housing during working lives before benefiting from imputed rent streams in retirement. But in some countries housing wealth's welfare role has broadened as owners increasingly use flexible mortgages to smooth consumption during working lives. One consequence is higher outstanding mortgages later in life, a burden exacerbated by high real house prices that compel home buyers to demand mortgages that are a growing multiple of their incomes. We investigate whether these developments are prompting longer working lives, an idea that is especially relevant in countries offering relatively low government pensions. Australia is one such country. We use the 2001–2017 panels of the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia Survey to estimate hazard models of exits from the Australian labour force as workers approach pensionable age. We find that those with high outstanding mortgage debts are more likely to postpone retirement, as are those with relatively low amounts of private pension wealth. These results are stronger in urban housing markets, and especially among males. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Across the decade to 2007, a combination of house price appreciation and relaxed credit constraints gave a boost to consumption through the mechanism of mortgage equity withdrawal (MEW). Arguably, this kept developed economies buoyant, even through periods of recession. This paper uses panel data on British and Australian homeowners to show that, notwithstanding its macro-economic effects, such borrowing has far-reaching implications for the micro-economy of households. The data indicate that, for the period 2001-2005, equity borrowing was a common tactic. The sums involved were not trivial, were not limited to older cohorts, or the province simply of the rich. In fact, the events and circumstances associated with equity borrowing at the zenith of the last housing cycle were consistent with an insurance, as well as a general consumption, role for MEW. As house prices fall and credit constraints are re-introduced, the options for such borrowing will shrink. Recent financial shocks may, by reducing the availability of a key channel from housing wealth into consumption, prompt a crisis of welfare. They pose challenges for housing and social policy as well as for economic management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]