Exploring America’s Housing Price From the Perspective of Individualism

Abstract：Downturn American real estate market presents a strong contrast against China.This paper will explore the influence of individualism on American housing price and expect to provide an new angle for Chinese to reflect domestic current situation.

Key words：House Price；Cultural Values；Hofstede；Individualism

1 Introduction

The dramatic increases in house prices have led to considerable attention being focused on housing markets in China，while，as the largest economy，American housing markets has been downturn during recent years.

According to the data collected by the American Real Estate Economic Association，in 2015 the average price of each house in the United States is 223.9 thousand dollars；The prices of house in the non mainstream community are even lower than those in the two or three tier Chinese cities.

From their mass culture，Americans are not keen on buying houses.Value，as the profound-level content of culture，is always considered as a set of standard of people to assess the significance and priority of things.American anthropologist Clyde Kluckholns value orientation theory argues that value decides what people think worthy.It directly or indirectly determines what is important or what should do in peoples mind，including house purchase behavior.

2 The Influence of Culture Values on Americans Attitude toward Purchasing House

Individualism：According to Hofstedes statistics，Chinas IDV index is 20，while America is 91.Apparently，the level of individualism in the U，S is far higher than that in China.Tthe western individualism mentioned here doesnt mean parochial old individualism.According to Encyclopedia Britannica，individualism can be described as the following three propositions： all values are human-centered，in other words，all values are experienced by people （but not necessarily created by people）； individual is purpose in itself，with the highest value，and society is just a means to achieve it； all individuals in some sense are morally equal.

The paper will list three most typical ones to talk about： work view，life view and family view.

2.1 Work View

There is a highly typical group in the United States.Most of them are in their thirties，have no children，and go wherever they can find satisfying jobs.Times ever named this group Odyssey.As a matter of fact，their portrait is also an epitome of all the Americans，most of whom do not think it a virtue to be loyal to one employer，and are hardly hesitant to change their employers.Because in Americans hearts，changes are often closely linked to development，improvement and progress.They feel trapped by a house，which will make Americans lose their spiritual aspirations--the freedom and independence of the individual.

2.2 Life View

In the United States，as early as 2000，on average，the room occupied by more than one person accounted for only about 5%，the average area of each house are 230 square meters，among which，39% have more than 4 bedrooms，57% have more than 3 bathrooms，54% have more than two layers.From the above data it is not hard to find that the living environment of the majority of Americans is superior.Under the influence of individualism，"privacy" is also regarded as a necessity of life.Americans always put the quality of life in the first position.As long as within their affordability，they will naturally choose to live in a more comfortable and better equipped house.So，they would like to rent a better house rather than buy a worse house，unless its necessary.

2.3 Family View

Under the influence of individualism，both parties of the marriage tend to pay more attention to personal feelings and happiness.The house does not play a little role in it.Besides，marriage，based on personal feelings，is often accompanied strong instability，which makes the divorce rate of the United States top the world.The instability of marriage will necessarily bring a great negative impact on housing prices.

3 Conclusion and Reflection

To sum up，under the influence of cultural values，Americans take an relatively indifferent attitude toward buying houses，so that house prices are hard to significantly or seriously go up.

References

[1]Kluckhohn F R，Strodtbeck F L，Roberts J M.Variations in value orientations[M].Row，Peterson and Co，1961.

[2]Anenberg E，Laufer S.A More Timely House Price Index[J].Review of Economics & Statistics，2017.

作者簡介

劉羽淳（1992—），女，漢，黑龍江省，碩士研究生，單位：天津外國語大學；研究方向：美國社會與文化。