Why Families, Housing and Property Wealth?

This chapter addresses the social and historic context in which homes as housing assets became central in the restructuring of the economy and social stratification in the twenty-first century. A key concern is how socioeconomic transformations have shaped, and been shaped by, kinship, household and family practices, life-course transitions and relations between generations. Housing markets have developed in remarkable ways in recent decades with property assets providing economic security for large numbers of families, but also generating greater inequalities between them. The chapter establishes the main themes of the book along with a framework for understanding their significance. It specifically addresses the restructuring of housing wealth accumulation in the decades before and since the Global Financial Crisis and what this tells us about the nature of late neoliberalism and the role of the family within it.