This research is a study of residential preferences and moving tendency of teachers in public schools in Kaohsiung who applied for retirement in 2003. It is intended to find out if there is any influence of personal backgrounds or needs of the subjects on their residential preferences and moving tendency, if their preferences are personal or environmental and if they find the current residences ideal¡Xif they do, what are the characteristics of their ideal residences and if not, what are the reasons for them to move? Moreover, if they decided to stay where they are now living even when not satisfied with the residences, what are the reasons that stop them from moving? In the study, questionnaires were mailed to public high school teachers in Kaohsiung who were registered to retire in 2003. 378 of the questionnaires were answered and returned, accounting for 30% of the total amount. Among the residences of the subjects, the Daliao, Renwu, Linyuan and Qiaotou townships in Kaohsiung County were categorized as the suburban areas, the Gushan, Zhuoying, Nanzi, Qianzhen, Qijin and Xiaogang districts in Kaohsiung City were the urban areas while the Yanchen, Sanmin, Qianjin, Xinxing and Lingya districts were the downtown areas. The statistic analysis of the returned questionnaires indicated significant connections among the subjects¡¦ ideal residences, their birth places, the places they have lived the longest and the places where they grew up. For subjects now living in downtown and urban areas, their preferable residences were the suburban area and then the downtown area, the countryside, small town and middle-size city in the order of preference. For subjects living in the suburban areas, their ideal residences were, from the most preferred to the least, the suburban area, the countryside, middle-size city, small town and the downtown area. As for the ideal county or city for residence, many of the subjects found the county or city where they are currently living satisfactory and most of these subjects are now living in the suburban areas. In terms of moving tendency, among the subjects who found their current residences ideal, the number of those who would not move was significantly larger than the others, while among the subjects who did not find their residences ideal, those who would not move was only slightly larger than those who would. Generally speaking, among all the subjects in this study, the number of those who would not move was significantly larger than those who would. Apparently, there is a significant connection between the subjects¡¦ opinions about the current residences and their moving tendency. For those subject who wanted to move even if they found their current residences ideal, the reasons could be divided into four aspects: the buildings, the natural environments, human factors and financial factors. The major reasons which stop the subjects from moving in this study were the financial factors, jobs of the families members, schooling of the family members and lack of spouse support. Among all the subjects, 70% thought they had found their ideal residences or believed they would in the future. The subjects¡¦ personal requirements of an ideal residence included employment opportunities, cultural activities, quality of nearby schools and religious beliefs while their environmental requirements were scenic view, interactions with friends, relatives and family members, living space and related facilities. For those subjects who found their current residences in the urban and downtown areas satisfactory, the environmental and personal requirements were almost equally importance while for the rest of the subjects, the environmental requirements were more important than the personal ones. According to the findings of this research, it is suggested that the social care and welfare policies should be accordingly adjusted as the elder population increases while many retired elders will move to apartments or care houses which offer special care instead of living with their children. Secondly, this study also finds that more and more people are moving to the suburban areas, forming a consuming force that might be as equally worthy of attention as that in the urban areas. Thirdly, among the subjects who found ideal residences in the urban areas and middle-size cities, their personal requirements and environmental requirements of an ideal residence are almost equally important. However, among those subjects who preferred suburban areas, the countryside and small towns, the environmental requirements are more important than the personal requirements. Therefore, it is suggested that there should be more natural landscapes for residents in the urban areas while more efforts should be invested in preserving the natural environments in the suburban areas. Fourthly, as the elder population expands, the government should establish more institutions or facilities of medical care, social service, finance and transportation in the suburban areas where more and more retired elder will reside in the future. Fifthly, the government should provide policies which encourage citizens to have financial plans for their life after retirement while the enterprises should provide the employees with well-designed pension policies so that people can be economically carefree and move to their ideal residences if possible after retirement. Finally,the care of elders in each community is a very important issue in Taiwan.

This paper examines the relationship between a multi-attribute attitude model and residential preference as a step towards developing an attitudinal model of housing choice. The use of multi-attribute attitude models, similar to those employed in marketing research, is suggested as a viable means of measuring residential preference, on the basis of measures of individual affect. Conceptual and measurement problems with each component of the suggested model are discussed and two attitude models of residential preference are presented. These models are empirically tested in a pilot study which deals with the housing preferences of a sample of on campus residents at McMaster University. The relationship which is shown to exist between attitude and preference in the pilot study, supports proposals for recommending an attitude model approach to the analysis of housing choice, in a more intensive enquiry. / Thesis / Master of Arts (MA)

Insufficient knowledge of residential preferences represents a major obstacle to achieving residential satisfaction and quality of life. This obstacle is even greater in the case of transit-oriented developments (TODs), as their success depends, in part, on the degree to which people's preferences are consistent with their residential environments. This study employed a visual choice experiment, which combines the benefits of visual preference surveys and discrete choice experiments, to elicit residential preference for TODs in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, before the opening of its citywide public transportation system. Using a seemingly homogeneous sample of participants, the analysis incorporated three analytical methods to elicit residential preference: a multinomial logit model, a mixed logit model, and a latent class model. The results indicated the presence of preference heterogeneity and the emergence of four lifestyle classes that could explain and predict residential preference patterns. People with similar sociodemographic characteristics may have different lifestyles based on their choice behavior, marital status, and public transit attitudes. Additionally, the results showed a strong preference for low-density housing, even among those who favor living in a TOD; however, increasing density could be mitigated through the presence of other TOD attributes. The findings of this research point to the diversity of residential preferences and suggest that providing a variety of residential environments increases the likelihood that people will find their preferred environment. Additionally, planning efforts to convert all developments near transit, particularly in suburban locations, to TODs might be unsuitable in cities where public transportation has been introduced only recently. Instead, deferring TOD conversion efforts until public transportation and its use are mature may attract people to live near transit and encourage the gradual development of transit affinity in residents who may otherwise reject TOD living completely. Lastly, the successful application of a visual choice experiment in this research opens up a variety of potential analytical methods that are used commonly in other fields and have the potential to move visual preference research into the realm of robust empirical investigation. / Ph. D. / The work of urban planners, urban designers, architects, and policy makers centers on improving the built environment and increasing the quality of people’s lives. However, their work entails making decisions that are not always in tandem with people’s preferences (e.g., increasing housing density, proposing a mix of land uses in residential neighborhoods, introducing public transportation close to where people live and work, to name a few). Due to the uncertainty surrounding people’s acceptance of modifications of the built environment, especially when it entails introducing residential attributes for the first time, this dissertation focused on 1) assessing residential preference near public transportation nodes in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia before operation of the public transportation system, and 2) assessing the extent to which advanced analytical methods are capable of providing a better understanding of residential preference differences among a seemingly homogenous sample of participants. The work in this dissertation was motivated by the increasing use of manipulated images in choice tasks, where participants are presented with multiple images, each depicting a residential scenario, as bundles to choose from, and their choice patterns then recorded and analyzed. The results showed that among the relatively homogenous sample of participants that was recruited, four significant residential preference patterns have emerged, which could be used to describe and predict residential preference and choice with great accuracy. This dissertation laid out several policy implications that could be useful in providing a built environment that matches with what people want. It also provided research implications and suggestions on the use of visual choice experiments for urban planners and designers that are well-developed in other fields of inquiry.