Filtering

Filtering is a pattern of residential mobility related to changes in the housing stock, especially new construction and devaluation. Filtering is often described with the metaphors of ladders or escalators: Households move up the housing market ladder as dwellings move down the social ladder. Early use of the term included filtering up to denote the former. In recent decades, the use of [Page 1112]the term has been limited to the downward movement of housing units among classes or income groups, associated with the devaluation of dwellings. In housing policy, filtering has long been a key process counted on by advocates of laissez-faire politics. The free market, it is argued, supplies housing for lower-income groups through the process of filtering. It is important to distinguish the ...