Jonas Vlachos in EFN: A secure home is becoming increasingly out of reach
Have rising housing wealth made societies more equal, or are debts simply being passed on to the next generation? In EFN Finansmagasinet, Jonas Vlachos, Professor of Economics at Stockholm University, examines today’s housing market.
Jonas Vlachos, Professor of Economics at Stockholm University.
In the op-ed, Vlachos argues that the nature of wealth accumulation in the Western world has changed in modern times. Wealth now consists primarily of assets such as owner-occupied homes and pension savings. “This shift largely explains why the Western world today is not only wealthier but, in many respects, also more equal than it was 100 years ago,” he writes.
When housing prices rise, the increase in value is recorded as an asset for homeowners. But for those who do not yet own a home, the same price increases mean larger loans, higher future costs of homeownership and greater financial vulnerability. The assets are visible in the statistics, but these future debts are not, Vlachos argues.
This is not merely a measurement problem, he writes, but also a redistribution from non-owners to owners, from younger generations to older ones, and from those without family wealth to those with financial support from parents. Seen from a societal perspective, we are therefore both poorer and more unequal than the statistics suggest.
Nor is it only about money, Vlachos notes in the op-ed, but also about the distribution of security and the sense of having a stable home. Those excluded from the housing market face a particularly exhausting situation: “Higher debt, greater sensitivity to interest rates, and less room for mistakes await them there.”
Last updated: 2026-05-25
Source: Department of Economics