Financial Distress and Homeownership: Evidence from SHARE Data Covering 50- to 90-Year-Old Citizens of the Nordic and Baltic States from 2020 to 2022

Homeownership is a societal and financial stronghold for people across the world. However, achieving or sustaining homeownership may come with a given cost. This study focuses on financial distress in relation to homeownership and other relevant factors like health. It relies on data from the Survey of Health, Ageing, and Retirement in Europe (SHARE) for citizens of the Nordic and Baltic States aged 50 to 90 years old. The analysis is completed with a logistic (N = 2,878) and ordered logistic (N = 7,030) estimator, which both model the change in the regressed variables from 2020 to 2022. The main findings reveal that homeownership exit alone does not relieve financial distress, yet results in an improvement in combination with a budget-for-food and income improvement. In contrast, a liabilities relief and a change in job situation appear to hinder a financial distress improvement. Overall, the findings can be regarded as relevant for policymakers’ quest for appropriate governmental action to handle citizens’ difficulties with making end meets which arise from sustaining homeownership.