First, some have suggested that the traditional willingness of American workers to move from weaker labor markets to stronger ones has been impeded by the sharp decline in residential property prices and especially by the large number of mortgages that are now greater than the values of the properties securing them.
But research to date suggests that such “house lock” has probably not had more than a small effect on structural unemployment thus far.7 As noted earlier, migration rates have been falling for some time. But the declines during the recession have not been larger for homeowners than for renters.