Australia's Owner-Occupied Housing Wealth and its Impact on Income Distribution

Abstract

In 1977, the United Nations recommended that imputed income from owner-occupied housing be added to primary income to give a preferred measure of total household income for use in income distribution statistics. This research report provides the first attempt in Australia to implement this recommendation. The report uses data from the 1988 Household Expenditure Survey to determine the value of gross and net owner occupied housing wealth in Australia and to examine the impact that the income derived from this wealth has on the distribution of household income in Australia.