We hypothesize that as the distance of a residential move increases, the amount and quality of information collected on the destination housing market fall. This in turn increases the chances of making an ill-informed housing purchase decision, thus reducing the likelihood of such a purchase. Using data from the Survey of English Housing from 1993 to 2008, we document that, consistent with our prior, households moving over long distances ? defined as 50 miles or more ? have, on average, a 5.5 percentage point lower probability of owning their next home compared to shorter-distance movers. We also provide evidence consistent with the views that long-distance movers (i) are aware that they possess less and/or lower quality information and (ii) are more likely, especially if they are renters, to move again quickly after presumably having accrued better information on the property and local area. ? 2021 Elsevier Inc.

---

1 September 2021

---

Journal of Housing Economics 532021

---

DOI: 10.1016/j.jhe.2021.101766

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1051137721000188

This Journal article is published under the centre's Urban programme, Neighbourhoods programme.

This publication comes under the following theme: Housing