The purpose of this study has to investigate the economic distress and consumption behavior changes of urban households. Data for this study were collected from 519 households who have resided in seoul area. The results showed that the income distress was higher than the employment distress. The variavles that influenced on income distress were mainly economic variables, while in the employment distress, social-demo variables were. According to the resets that investigated the changes of consumption behaviors with respect to the dimensions of behavioral consumption, the quantity and price directive consumption changed greatly. Finally socio-economic variables were affecting on consumption behavior through the economic distress directly and indirectly