The heterogeneity of residents’ preference over a wide array of services, provided by a master planned community (MPC)

Abstract

ABSTRACT The study estimated an average Californian’s preference over a variety of attributes provided by Master Planned Communities (MPC) – (1) Access to Natural Park & Urban amenities, (2) Access to HOA amenities, (3) Frequency of Social Gatherings and (4) Landscape Aesthetic. The study estimated conditional logit (CL), 2-class latent class (2 C-LCM) and 2-class latent class–random parameter models (2 CLC-RPM), to explore respondents’ varying preferences over those services, and found that people in our sample perceived the above-mentioned attributes as positive amenities, although the frequency of social gatherings provided by communities was viewed as the least important amenity. The results also showed that younger and relatively wealthier respondents were more likely to value MPC-driven services higher than their older and poorer counterparts. Also, the results from 2 CLC-RPM with attitudinal membership variables show that people in MPC-lover class tend to believe building MPCs promote school quality and opportunities for social gatherings.