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Debt amnesia: Homeowners’ discourses on the financial costs and gains of homebuying

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  • Adriana M Soaita
  • Beverley A Searle

Abstract

In Anglo-Saxon societies, homeowners expect to create synergies between the owned house seen as a space of shelter, a place of home, a store of wealth and increasingly, an investment vehicle (and an object of debt). Drawing on interviews with owner-occupiers and on historic house value and mortgage data in Great Britain, we examine the way in which homes’ meanings are negotiated through the subjective calculation of the financial costs and gains of homebuying. We explore homebuyers’ miscalculation of gains, their disregard of inflation and more generally, the inconspicuousness of debt in relation to gains within their accounts, which we term ‘debt amnesia’. We show that the phenomenon of debt amnesia is socially constructed by congruent socio-linguistic, cultural, institutional and ideological devices besides being supported by historic growth in house values. Informed by the ideas of ‘tacit knowledge’ and ‘metaphoric understanding’, we reflect on how the occurrence of the unspoken and the partiality of metaphor reinforce the internalisation of homeownership.

Suggested Citation

  • Adriana M Soaita & Beverley A Searle, 2016. "Debt amnesia: Homeowners’ discourses on the financial costs and gains of homebuying," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 48(6), pages 1087-1106, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:envira:v:48:y:2016:i:6:p:1087-1106
    DOI: 10.1177/0308518X16638095
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Beverley A. Searle & David McCollum, 2014. "Property-based welfare and the search for generational equality," European Journal of Housing Policy, Taylor and Francis Journals, vol. 14(4), pages 325-343, October.
    2. Paul Langley & Adam Leaver, 2012. "Remaking Retirement Investors," Journal of Cultural Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 5(4), pages 473-488, May.
    3. Beverley A. Searle & David McCollum, 2014. "Property-based welfare and the search for generational equality," International Journal of Housing Policy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 14(4), pages 325-343, October.
    4. Frick, Joachim R. & Grabka, Markus M. & Smeeding, Timothy M. & Tsakloglou, Panos, 2010. "Distributional Effects of Imputed Rents in Five European Countries," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 19(3), pages 167-179.
    5. Kevin Keasey & Gianluca Veronesi, 2012. "The Significance and Implications of Being a Subprime Homeowner in the UK," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 44(6), pages 1502-1522, June.
    6. John Hills, 2010. "An Anatomy of Economic Inequality in the UK - Report of the National Equality Panel," CASE Reports casereport60, Centre for Analysis of Social Exclusion, LSE.
    7. Hills, John & Brewer, Mike & Jenkins, Stephen P & Lister, Ruth & Lupton, Ruth & Machin, Stephen & Mills, Colin & Modood, Tariq & Rees, Teresa & Riddell, Sheila, 2010. "An anatomy of economic inequality in the UK: report of the National Equality Panel," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 28344, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
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    Cited by:

    1. French, Declan & McKillop, Donal & Sharma, Tripti, 2018. "What determines UK housing equity withdrawal in later life?," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 73(C), pages 143-154.

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