Residential mobility: Contrasting approaches in Europe and the United States

Major differences exist in patterns of residential mobility and in theories about them in the US compared with European countries. The divergent histories and institutional arrangements of the two areas foster specific types of mobility and hinder others. To explain the mobility in each setting, theorists have selected methods and variables that make their approaches seem unsuitable when applied to the other area. Variety among European countries is important, but this discussion stresses how a common legacy of housing policies has inclined European observers to the view that everything is more complicated than it seems. By contrast, American analysts tend to see their housing situation in a simplified but strangely dualistic way. For some, real estate markets are already functioning beautifully in fostering timely moves and simply need to be appreciated. For others the barriers to escaping from paralysed inner-city ghettos are almost insurmountable. The barriers to moving out of 'socially excluding' zones, although growing, seem less formidable to European analysts. Are these zones like the rest of markets significantly different, or are they merely perceived with different analytical spectacles? Some of both, naturally.