Suburbanization in Russia: is Dacha a Solution to the Housing Problem?

A possibility of solving the housing problem is studied in terms of additional housing resources of the population. Some households, especially families with children and multiple generation families, choose rationally to live in overcrowding house. They value benefits from a convenient location, joint housekeeping and opportunities of children care more than the improvement of the main housing costs. However, some of them have the second accommodation - an apartment or room in a communal flat and these families cannot be considered formally as needed to improve their housing conditions. On weekends or long holidays residents of large cities move to dachas in suburb, solving temporarily the problem of overcrowding flat in the city. The article presents the assessment of the scale of suburban way of life, a description of its factors and links with the problem of crowded housing on Moscow survey data. Also, we simulate the impact of accounting for the second housing on the level of housing of the population. Conclusions are drawn from a nationally representative survey.