Reliable measurement of economic
inequality among people is important for comparison over time or comparison
between nations. A problem in measuring inequality is that in most cases we
measure income inequality, though wealth inequality is a better criterion for
comparing individuals and populations. Measuring total wealth is most difficult
or even impossible. If we look at the components of wealth, we can see that for
households with medium-low income, housing is the major component in their
wealth. So, the question raised in this thesis, can the value of housing be a
proxy for wealth. The following hypotheses were examined: is there connection
between the apartment value and socio-economic characteristics; is there
similar relationship between income and socio-economic characteristics as
between value of housing and socio-economic characteristics; is it possible to
examine inequality in wealth through the examination of inequality in housing. We
examined the impact of socio-economic characteristics separately on income and
on value of housing. The results show that there is similarity in the impact of
each characteristic on the value of housing and on income. During the next
stage of the work we examined which variables we will include in the model of
multiple regressions in order to examine the impact on housing and income. We
examined the whole population with the dependent variable income. We examine
which socio-economic variables affect significantly income. We repeated the
analysis and examined the socio-economic characteristics which affect
homeowners’ income. Following the results of the analysis we cannot reject the
hypothesis that income is affected by socio-economic characteristics .According
to the analysis the conclusion is that we can use homeowners as a statistical
sample. We ran a regression model with the same explanatory variables, but the
dependent variable is the apartment value. We conclude that the apartment value
is a function of similar socio-economic characteristics as the ones affecting
income. From the analysis we conclude that there is similar relation between
income and socio-economic characteristics and home value and socio-economic
characteristics, and it is possible to examine inequality in wealth by
examining the inequality in housing .Using this conclusion, we examined
inequality by calculating Gini Index. There is a greater inequality if
examination is done for the whole population than inequality in the incomes of
homeowners. In addition, there is a smaller inequality if examination is done
according to the value of housing. We will deduct that there is a smaller
inequality in housing value than in the incomes of the general population.
