(Social strata) Acquisition of domicile by educational level

Counting the time how long it takes to gather funds to become an owner of a home (usually apartment) is one way to make social differences tangible in Korea. Chosun Ilbo quotes a small piece of research done by some kind of a research center operated by a big real estate agency, which instead was done by using data from Korea National Statistic Office. For a university graduate, the time to become an owner of an apartment of 25 p'yông (82.5 sqm) is 15 years and for a high school graduate 15 years. The difference that education makes is getting bigger. The calculations were made by using the average income and expenses of families with the "family head" (kaguju 家口主) having the respective level of education. High school grad family: monthly average income 2.8 mil.W [1850€], expenses 2.3 mil [1500€]; if the remaining sum is supposedly saved, it'll take 24 to gather funds for a 82.5 sqm house that costs 224 million W [150 000€]. University grad family: monthly average income 3.9 mil W [2600€], expenses 3.1 mil [2000€]; takes 15 years 4 months to save for an apartment with the remainder. In 2001, the respective numbers of years were 15 years and 12 years 11 months. After 2001, the average income difference between high school and university graduates has grown from 600 000 won to 1.12 million won. Categories at del.icio.us/hunjang: education ∙ housing ∙ stratification ∙ money