Residential Mobility, Housing Costs, and Relationships among Neighbors

Abstract

Drawing on the California Health Interview Survey, I test the hypothesis that cost-related movers—renters who recently moved due to unaffordable housing costs—are less likely to trust their neighbors and count on them for support than renters who recently moved for other housing-related reasons and renters who did not recently move. I find that, on average, trust and support are lower among cost-related movers. My findings suggest that cost-related movers might be less trusting because they tend to be more wary of strangers, which could include their neighbors. They further suggest that cost-related movers might be less likely to have neighbors they can count on for support because they are more likely to perceive their neighborhoods as unsafe. The findings contribute to the scholarship on residential mobility by demonstrating that beyond the frequency with which renters move, the types of moves they experience may also shape their local relationships.