This thesis aims to identify the motivating factors driving consumers home purchase decisions from the consumer's point of view. Although there is an abundance of past real estate research, dating back as far as the 1920's, the factors shaping consumers home choice have not been fully explored. Past research has tended to assume that homebuyers arrive at a decision following a logical and rational decision making process. These studies have also tended to focus on utilitarian or economic factors shaping home choice. Although past research has unquestionably added to the understanding of home purchase behaviour, the focus on utilitarian and economic factors does not explain decisions that are underpinned by deep-seated motives. The present thesis extends past research by exploring the less tangible, non-economic aspects of home choice in order to provide a fuller story of why and how people consume homes. The primary aim of this study was to investigate the unsolicited motives underlying consumers' home choices, therefore, a qualitative technique known as ZMET was employed. Based on the notion of unconscious thoughts, ZMET uses visual images gathered and/or generated by consumers to elicit and probe the metaphors that represent their thoughts and feelings. For the present study, 14 consumers who had recently placed an offer on a home took part in the ZMET interview. The present methodology extends past property research which has predominantly taken a quantitative approach. The findings of the study provide a rich insight into the motivations behind consumer home choice. Firstly, it reveals that the pre-purchase checklists used by many homebuyers and real estate agents are inaccurate representation of consumer home choice, and explains why this is so. Secondly, it demonstrates the influence of twenty four motives, including three central constructs (space, nature and views) on consumer home choice and highlights the fact that autobiographical memories underpins many of the motives to impact on choice. Thirdly, it provides a model mapping out the interaction between utilitarian and hedonic motives, which evokes a network of feelings, sensations and emotions that shape consumer home choice. In doing so, the research provides theoretical insight into the link between the rational information-processing model and the experiential view of hedonic consumption in home purchases. This study has shown that a specific set of utilitarian and deep-seated hedonic factors interrelate to culminate upon one's home choice. The findings in this study maintain that while utilitarian factors are significant determinants of home choice, in themselves, they do not always tell the whole story. This new knowledge of how and why homebuyers chose what they did is valuable to practitioners in predicting accurate property demands and value. Real estate agents can-sell more effectively by matching a property to a homebuyer's hedonic needs. The information in this study also helps homebuyers understand that their home choice is guided by internal images and deep-seated motives derived from many years of past experience but more importantly, they can decide if these motives justify the price they pay for the property. Finally, the model gives future researchers a new framework to access meanings necessary for understanding homebuyer choice and allows a closer examination of the mechanics of these influences on the housing market and its demands.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Ohio State University, 2006. / Title from first page of PDF file. Includes bibliographical references (p. 235-243).

Current water shortages in the United States and Texas are expected to only worsen so that by 2050, approximately 40% of both U.S. and Texas residents will live in areas of water scarcity (U.S. House Committee, 2003; Texas Water Development Board, 2003). In response to these grim projections, both lawmakers and environmentalists are calling for conservation measures so that future shortages or costly new supply initiatives are avoided. One area where substantial consumption decreases could be made is the municipal sector, which is projected to account for 35% of all water consumed in Texas by 2050 (Texas Water Development Board, 2002). Both organizations and voluntary programs have been established to reduce water consumption in this area. One of the largest and most innovative programs in the state is the Austin Green Building Program (AGBP). It was the first program of its kind in the U.S. that rates new homes and remodels in regards to five categories related to sustainability: energy efficiency, water efficiency, materials efficiency, health and safety and community (City of Austin, 2001). This research identified the factors (weather, home size, lot size, appraised value, and existence of a pool) that effect water consumption for residences qualifying as "Austin Green Homes", and identified those green features or designs that had the greatest effect on water consumption, that were most commonly included, and the reasons why contractors incorporated them. Non-green features such as temperature, rainfall, home and lot size, appraised value and a pool seemed to have the greatest impact on water consumption, from an analysis of R2 values, albeit a positive relation for each variable. When green features were investigated, findings showed that different features were effective in reducing water consumption for different builders and in many cases, water-conserving features actually led to increased use. Finally, results showed that large builders incorporated fewer water-related green features in their homes and achieved lower star ratings in general than small green builders.

This qualitative research aims to explore the daily life experiences of Malaysian unwed teenage mothers inshelter homes. The research is based on the thematic analysis of interviews with seventeen respondents agedfrom 12 to 18 years. Eight sub-themes described the experience of the unwed teenage mothers in the shelterhome and led to three overall themes: rules and regulations, relationship with the staff and relationship with theother girls at the shelter home. The findings indicated that the shelter homes involved were not fulfilling thestandard of the Malaysian national laws and United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. We stronglysuggest that the authorities provide a clear guideline concerning the implementation of Malaysian national lawsand United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child.

The nature of electrical power requires specific infrastructure in order to operate adequately. Currently, the United States electricity grid contains a number of bottlenecking inefficiencies that arise from the aging infrastructure of the system. This paper examines the current state of the United States electricity grid, how potential changes in weather variables can affect the electricity consumption of residential consumers, and how implementation of Smart Grid technology can potentially mitigate these issues. It is determined through regression analysis that each weather variable that was tested proves significant for at least one of the consumers compared. This indicates that there is an enormous magnitude of individual variables that factor into residential electricity consumption and that more efficient and integrated electricity practices are necessary to optimize efficiency.

No description available.

Private schools have frequently provided innovative, experimental, and creative program unavailable to students in the public system. The most successful have survived and expanded by offering an educational experience widely perceived to be not just as good as that available in the public system, but better. In Canada, private schools are enjoying an unprecedented popularity and while most are day-only, over sixty sustain boarding programs, as do two off-shore Canadian schools. The Handbook of Canadian Boarding Schools presents information on the educational environment of each province,then offers comparative information on each boarding school. The information on each school includes: basic data, location, history, philosophy, the campus, boarding facilities, health and safety, administration and faculty, student body and student conduct, academic calendar and program, information technology, student activities and student conduct, admission and costs. The Handbook also supplies several appendices outlining important programs often available through boarding schools, such as Advanced Placement courses and the International Baccalaureate. For parents in Canada and abroad about to commit substantial sums to their children''s education, the Handbook of Canadian Boarding Schools is an essential tool to help them make the right decision. It is also an indispensable resource for supporters of the public system looking for ideas that have worked elsewhere. / Ashley Thomson, a faculty member in the J.N. Desmarais Library at Laurentian University of Sudbury, is the author/editor of the Directory of Canadian Private Residential Schools (1986), of which this is a major revision. Sylvie Lafortune is a faculty member in the J.N. Desmarais Library at Laurentian University of Sudbury. / Laurentian University subsidized the research for this project.

The conflict between residential land and agriculture land in China is increasingly sharpened, especially when some urban development began to sprawl to the suburban and rural areas. In order to plan land resources properly, land suitability assessment is often conducted to determine which type of land use is most appropriate for a particular location. <br /><br /> The main objective of this study is to examine how land suitability assessment methods could be used in land planning processes in the Dianchi Drainage Area (DDA) in Southwest China to identify where future residential development should be located. The 1991 Toronto Waterfront Plan and the more recent 2005 Ontario Greenbelt Plan are examined and used to develop a framework which describes the potential for land suitability assessment in the DDA. Data limitations did not permit a suitability analysis to be completed for the DDA, however a description of methodologies for conducting residential land suitability analysis and required data are presented based on a review of relevant literature. The paper concludes with a discussion of the feasibility of land suitability in the DDA and other areas in China and also suggests opportunities for future research.

As Canada’s capital, the City of Ottawa has benefited from several comprehensive land use planning exercises since the early 1900s. Early plans carried out by the federal government were led by Prime Ministers who, in wanting to beautify the region, initiated long range plans that spanned both sides of the Ottawa River, providing land use goals and guidance for what are today the cities of Ottawa and Gatineau. The planning context changed through the 1970s, however. The federal government played a lesser role in land use planning as regional and area municipal governments grew and an expanding technically trained staff developed local plans. It was in the absence of a strong regional plan aimed at controlling outward expansion that there was rapid growth of low density suburban communities outside of the National Capital Commission greenbelt. Today, planning policy in Ottawa recognizes the environmental, social, and economic benefits of compact development and encourages by, in part, directing growth to the existing built-up area. Unfortunately, residential intensification efforts in the City have been disappointing. While the City has developed a variety of policies and programs to encourage and support residential intensification, it appears site level constraints have prohibited it to occur in a significant way. This research is concerned with identifying weaknesses in the City of Ottawa’s current growth management strategy. The purpose of this research is to provide recommendations that can be used to strengthen Ottawa’s growth management policies and programs to more effectively achieve the compact urban form desired by the municipality. The findings demonstrate that there is some level of disconnect between what recent literature and key informant interviews identify as the barriers to residential intensification at the site level and the motherhood principles for compact development at the municipal level. More specifically, barriers can be summarized as community and political resistance, regulatory challenges, and policy vs. market realities. It is recommended that the City of Ottawa adopt a strengthened strategy that establishes achievable growth and intensification targets; encourages community support for compact development; considers growth over the longer term and with a regional perspective; and is advocated by strong leaders. Only in this way can the City create an improved strategy that will, like earlier plans, make Ottawa once again a proud leader in urban planning efforts in Canada.

This study uses content analysis and a controlled experiment as data generation methods to investigate the precise nature of the largely unexplored relationship between the content of real estate news and activities in the real estate market. The theoretical base of the research is Kahneman’s two system view (2003) of cognitive processing, which is applied to an individual’s decision-making about the residential real estate market. The affect heuristic provides the theoretical basis for studying the relationship between the emotional content of local media information and decision making in the residential real estate market. The research question seeks to measure the “framing effect” of news on real estate market activity. It is posited that the way local real estate news is framed will influence transaction prices and the number of pending sales. A behavioral approach is utilized to understand the underlying relationship between a residential real estate market and a news article to audiences; an effect called frame setting. It is conjectured that when media coverage about the real estate market is negative there is more downward pressure on the market compared to when media coverage is more objective and includes descriptive statistics on the current real estate market.