The study found that rising housing prices are associated with improved health for homeowners and higher-income earners, but are linked to poorer overall health for renters and lower-income earners.
Rising house prices harm the mental and physical health of the poorest members of society while improving the well-being of the wealthiest, a systematic review of 23 studies from around the world has found.
The study, published last month in the journal BMC Public Health, looked at the impact of changes in house prices in East Asia, North America and Australia on renters, homeowners and different income levels.
The study found a strong association between rising home prices and improved health for homeowners and those with higher incomes, but for renters and those with lower incomes, higher housing costs were correlated with worse overall mental and physical health.
Lead author Ashmita Grewal, a master's student in the School of Health Sciences at Simon Fraser University (SFU), said while the review did not include any Canadian studies, she hopes the research will spur further investigation into what's going on in places like British Columbia.
“Housing is critical to our health and well-being. It's not just important as a way to acquire capital or as an investment vehicle,” Grewal says. “Housing is a basic necessity for life.”
By examining all the findings holistically, the research team, led by Kifer Card, an assistant professor in SFU's School of Health Sciences, was able to identify a “tale of two markets.”
Card said the impact of housing on health could not be quantified because the effects are widespread, affecting everything from people's mental health to the everyday decisions they make.
Stress leads to direct health problems
Regarding mental health, Card said living under chronic stress has been shown to increase the incidence of heart disease and weaken the immune response.
“When people experience financial strain, they perceive it as a stressor, which increases hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal communication and causes physical wear and tear on the body,” Card said.
The stresses of not owning a home can also wear people down due to societal pressures and expectations for safety and security in life. Homeownership is often a core part of the American, Canadian and European dream and is how people assess their overall quality of life, Card explained.
Take away that perspective and people lose their sense of stability. The resulting anxiety is a natural evolutionary response and makes people even more stressed.
Card identified the same chronic stress mechanism in previous research on the health effects of social isolation and climate change.
Housing prices influence health decisions
The second way rising housing prices hurt the poor is behaviorally, Card said.
“Obviously being priced out of the housing market leads to homelessness, which is devastating for people's health and wellbeing,” he said.
But even before they become homeless, people start making sacrifices. They stop buying quality food or give up eating altogether to feed their children. They stop exercising because they have to take on a second job or work extra shifts at work.
Penny Gerstein, professor emeritus and co-director of the University of British Columbia's Housing Research Collaborative, said the findings are consistent with those of a long-term study she co-authored more than a decade ago.
The three-year study, which included semi-annual interviews with single mothers receiving income support, found that many of the participants suffered from a range of health problems, including allergies, asthma and food insecurity caused by living in damp, mouldy homes.
“Mothers were taking their children to medical aid, and they knew it was because of where they lived,” Gerstein said. “People were finding that at the end of the month, they didn’t have enough to eat.
“I think it's even worse now. It's much more extreme.”
When problems are out of our control (like the housing market), Card says, people turn to passive coping strategies, which often involve some form of escapism, such as endlessly scrolling through social media or turning to substances like alcohol, tobacco, marijuana or opioids to reduce stress, find distraction or find sources of pleasure or entertainment.
“The main reason people turn to drugs is to escape the pressures they experience in everyday life,” Card said.
In the end, all of these reactions add up and lead to worse health outcomes for not just the individual, but for everyone.
“When you look at a population level, as many of these studies have done, you start to see that these increased stresses and behavioral pressures are driving up health care costs,” Card said.
Homeowners and the wealthy see improvement as home prices rise
Meanwhile, homeowners and high-income earners tend to have more wealth as home prices rise, which many have invested in. Rising wealth gives people a greater sense of security, which in turn helps them live happier, healthier lives, the study found.
UBC political scientist Stewart Prest said the study supports other research showing a widening class divide between renters and owners in Canada and around the world.
“There are a range of costs associated with a housing shortage, some obvious and some implicit,” he says. “This kind of research can help us understand some of the hidden costs.”
UBC business professor Tom Davidoff cautioned against assuming rising housing prices were the cause of the health effects without controlled experiments, saying the rise in housing prices could have started during the economic boom, or that the underlying cause of the decline in health could be worsening air quality as a result of the industrial boom.
“There's a lot of ways these studies can go wrong,” he says. “Without the experiment, there's a lot of other things going on. But my gut feeling is that it's pretty true. I've looked for a house in Vancouver, and it's pretty stressful. I can attest to that.”
Card said the impact of the review is broad, affecting societies around the world, including Canada. For policymakers and voters, choosing how to regulate the housing market and the economy they live in involves trade-offs.
“Are we going to choose policies that really address the health disparities that specifically affect low-income families, or are we going to prioritize mainstream homeowners and higher-income families?” Card said.
“That's really nerve-wracking.”
