Trends of Residential Location in a Small Local City

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to investigate the actual condition of the residential mobility and its location in a small city region, where the circumstances are comparatively hard for human settlement.A case study was done in the Shinjo City area, Yamagata Prefecture. The area is characterized by heavy snowfalls and inactive industries. In this paper, the data of “Jumin-kihon-daicho” (the basic municipal register of inhabitants) are used, and the state of residential mobility and the change of residential districts are discussed.The results are summarized as follows:The movement of finding jobs, school attendance, transference, marriage etc.. Moreover, there are the different types of movements, such as intra-urban mobility accompanied by the renewal of housing or change of rental housing, retirement movement to the central area of the prefecture, migration from rural hamlets or towns to the urban district, and intra-rural change of housing location. These types of movement may be affected by the place utilities of each residential districts.The number of households in each residential district is decreasing in the old urban district and increasing in the new urban district, in the last ten years. This trend is mainly contributed by the direct movement of households between two districts.There are changes not only in the quantity but also in the quality of inhabitants of the urban districts. The short distance movements, affected by the place utility, may have strong relations with the change of residential quality than other types of movements.