HEALTH

How Housing Costs Affect Australian Well-being

AustraliaMon Jan 13 2025
You're Australian, and the cost of your housing keeps rising. What happens to your health and happiness? Researchers looked into this, using a special method to compare locals' health and life satisfaction when housing prices go up. They found that high housing costs can make your body feel great, but it can also make you less happy with life. Interestingly, it didn't seem to affect how you feel emotionally. The kicker? People who own homes, are well-educated, or are older tend to benefit the most physically from these cost increases. The study used a clever trick to figure this out. They observed how foreign investments pushed up housing prices in certain areas, and then analyzed how people living there felt about their health and life. This approach helps ensure that the results are genuine and not just a coincidence.

questions

    Could the positive health effects be due to increased exercise from running away from the real estate agent?
    What are the potential biases in using an instrumental variable approach with historical patterns of immigrant settlement?
    How does the study account for the potential confounding factors that could affect both housing costs and health outcomes?

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