Residential Preferences

Residential preferences reflect desired types of housing situations and encompass many dimensions of housing, including structural type, tenure, location, neighborhood housing and population composition, and political jurisdiction.

Determining the type of housing that people want is important for several reasons. First, residential preferences are economically important. Housing expenditures are large, representing a significant proportion of household income. In the United States, housing's economic impact is considered so great that the number of housing starts per month is used as a barometer for the health of the general economy. Moreover, the housing industry is a major source of employment, including that for construction workers, landlords, real estate brokers, appraisers, lenders, and more. Housing “stimulates” other types of consumption as well, including purchase of furniture, appliances, and other household items. The economic centrality of housing at a variety of levels, from the household to the nation-state, makes the study of residential preference an important economic enterprise. As a commodity that is largely produced in the private sector, housing is developed to appeal to people's tastes and preferences. Hence, there is a need to determine whether there is a correspondence between the types of housing supplied on the market and the types of housing that people want.

[Page 616]Second, residential preferences are relevant to policy. Certain types of housing (especially suburban, owner-occupied, single-family housing) are supported and even promoted by public policy (e.g., through tax policy, land use planning techniques, and direct and indirect subsidies). The bias of public policy toward supporting some types of housing and not others makes it important to determine whether policy reflects widespread preferences or instead helps shape residential desires.

Third, residential preferences are socially important. Through housing, people gain varying levels of access to important life-sustaining amenities, including shelter, comfort and satisfaction, education and employment, transportation, recreational activities, safety, and other people. Housing is a locus of family life and a critical linchpin for members’ opportunities for socioeconomic mobility. Therefore, a crucial question is whether people's desires for housing situations correspond to those that will enable them to optimize the quality of their lives. This is a particularly important question for single parents and minority and poor households.

Finally, residential preferences are politically important. Housing is alleged to be a major source of political stability through engendering satisfaction with the political and economic system undergirding the production of housing. Therefore, whether people's housing situations reflect what they want is regarded as a fundamental political issue.