Housing Adjustment Theory

The theory of housing adjustment states that households judge their housing in accordance with culturally derived norms. First posited in 1975, Earl W. Morris and Mary Winter's theory of housing adjustment became the crux of the text Housing, Family, and Society published in 1978. Since then, many articles published in the housing journal Housing and Society have employed the Morris and Winter theoretical framework to explain households’ norms and preferences for housing.

According to the theory, decisions about where to live are made at the household level. Household members use societal rules and standards, or norms, to evaluate their current residential circumstances regarding tenure and structure type, space, expenditures, quality, and neighborhood. Norms also are established at the household level and may sometimes differ from societal norms. Generally, normative housing in the United States is by owner-occupancy, preferably a single-family dwelling that includes a prescribed number of bedrooms based on the age and sex of household members. Housing expenditures should be no more than 30% of annual household income, and the neighborhood attributes and amenities should support household needs. Households experience dissatisfaction with housing that is non-normative due to deficits; in turn, their quality of life is compromised. According to Morris and Winter, a specific housing condition or set of conditions becomes a deficit when the condition has been subjectively defined as undesirable in comparison with a norm. Deficits result from constraints that keep a household from attaining the housing desired and together affect housing satisfaction and ultimately predict housing decision-making outcomes, that is, housing adjustments.

Figure 1 Model of Housing Adjustment Theory

Figure 1 illustrates the important role of constraints impeding the availability of normative housing, such as predispositions, household organization, market, resources, and discrimination.