Macro-Level Factors Shaping Residential Location Choices: Examining the Impacts of Density and Land-Use Mix

Abstract

Many published papers have delved into the factors affecting the residential location choices of households using various logit models. Nonetheless, only a few pieces of literature have attempted to examine those associative attributes from a macroscopic view. Thus, this article investigates the factors that influence households’ preference to reside in densely populated locations or regions with a wide variety of land-use types using ordered choice models (ORM). This study proposes three indicators that are reflective of residential areas, namely population density, housing density, and land-use mix index, based on prior research. Population density and housing density are modeled at census block and tract levels to explore households’ sensitivity to different geographical scales. Regarding land use, this research classifies the diversity index into four categories: uniform, moderately diverse, more diverse, and the most diverse. Similarly, the study is predicated on 0.25-mile and 0.5-mile buffer zones. The findings are consistent with earlier research and highlight macro-level issues that influence residential location decisions. As for the residential preference for housing density, significant factors are the structure of households, the number of vehicles per household, and household income. Regarding the residential choices of population density, significant attributes refer to demographic characteristics, household income, and housing types. Concerning the residential choices based on land-use mix, the most influential factors turn out to be the interacting terms between demographics and housing-related index, household income, and housing-related indexes.