Residential Decisions Research Articles

How schools affect neighbourhoods: a conceptual framework for the multiple roles of public schools

ABSTRACT Schools are often seen primarily as places of education and learning. However, in addition to providing pupils with knowledge and skills needed in life, schools have a central role in forming and structuring life in their neighbourhoods. In this paper, we propose a conceptual framework for understanding the role and potential of schools in neighbourhood and social development. We illustrate the conceptual framework with empirical data from a survey among residents in five Finnish cities, where the link between schools and neighbourhoods is traditionally strong as school admission is based on catchment areas. We argue for a broader perspective on schools by paying attention to the three significant roles of schools: their educational role, their role in structuring residential decisions and social composition of neighbourhoods, and thirdly, their role as a hub for services and social life.

Residential mobility and new forms of spatial inequality in the settlement system: A comparative study of Estonia and Lithuania

This study examines how socio-spatial inequalities are associated with population concentration and de-concentration processes shaped by residential mobility. The study explores whether the patterns of residential mobility vary in different settlement system contexts. It reviews the cyclical urbanization models and the inequality of opportunities they provide in urban, suburban, and counter-urban contexts for individuals in various life stages. The theoretical models are tested by analysing individual-level data covering the entire populations of Estonia and Lithuania – two countries with similar social but different settlement system contexts. The study utilizes linked individual-level data from the 2011 and 2021 censuses, and harmonized variables in the two countries. The results show that individuals engaging in concentration, suburbanization, or de-concentration have distinct characteristics, with little differences between countries characterized with different settlement systems. While the life-course approach assumes that young people are most likely to urbanize (concentrate), those in family ages shift towards suburbanization, and older individuals tend to counter-urbanize (de-concentrate), our findings challenge these assumptions, demonstrating that young adults have a high likelihood of migration in all three directions. These findings call for more in-depth studies on the interplay between age and migration patterns that would go beyond the life-course approach and delve deeper into the residential decision-making of young people.

“I Just Had to Go With It Once I Got There”: Inequality, Housing, and School Re-optimization

Residential segregation by race and class is a durable form of inequality. Yet, we know less about how the unequal sorting of families into neighborhoods and schools occurs. Drawing on interviews with a diverse sample of 156 families, we examine whether residential and school decisions are connected and how they differ by household income. We find that, for higher-income families, residential decisions maintain and build on existing educational advantages, while lower-income parents churn between both houses and schools, doing the continuous work of compensating for unequal settings. Only the highest income—mostly White—parents report that they can combine their housing and school decisions and achieve satisfaction in both domains. In contrast, housing insecurity and unequal, racially-stratified geographies constrain less advantaged, primarily minority families to prioritize affordable shelter over school choice. When such trade-offs lead to inadequate educational experiences for their children, these families try to improve their children’s schools through re-optimization strategies, withdrawing and re-enrolling them into different schools. While some parents perceive that these changes benefit their children, such school transfers can also increase educational instability. More generally, the lack of quality schools in affordable neighborhoods burdens families by requiring compensatory strategies to resolve housing and educational shortcomings.

Does the population size of a city matter to its older adults' self-rated health? Results of China data analysis.

Clarifying the association between city population size and older adults' health is vital in understanding the health disparity across different cities in China. Using a nationally representative dataset, this study employed Multilevel Mixed-effects Probit regression models and Sorting Analysis to elucidate this association, taking into account the sorting decisions made by older adults. The main results of the study include: (1) The association between city population size and the self-rated health of older adults shifts from a positive linear to an inverted U-shaped relationship once individual socioeconomic status is controlled for; the socioeconomic development of cities, intertwined with the growth of their populations, plays a pivotal role in yielding health benefits. (2) There is a sorting effect in older adults' residential decisions; compared to cities with over 5 million residents, unobserved factors result in smaller cities hosting more less-healthy older adults, which may cause overestimation of health benefits in cities with greater population size. (3) The evolving socioeconomic and human-made environment resulting from urban population growth introduces health risks for migratory older adults but yields benefits for those with local resident status who are male, aged over 70, and have lower living standards and socioeconomic status. And (4) The sorting effects are more pronounced among older adults with greater resources supporting their mobility or those without permanent local resident status. Thus, policymakers should adapt planning and development strategies to consider the intricate relationship between city population size and the health of older adults.

Commuting for Crime

Abstract People care about crime, with the spatial distribution of both actual and perceived crime affecting the local amenities from living in different areas and residential decisions. The literature finds that crime tends to happen close to the offender's residence, but does not clearly establish whether this is because the location of likely offenders and crime opportunities are close to each other, whether more local crimes are likely to be solved or whether there is a high commuting cost for criminals. We use a rich administrative dataset from one of the biggest UK police forces to disentangle these hypotheses, proposing a procedure for controlling for the selection bias induced by the fact that an offender’s location is only known when they are caught. We find that the cost of distance is very high, especially for crimes without any financial gain. For property crimes, we find a similar cost of distance to commuting for legal work. We also investigate how local socio-economic characteristics affect both the number of criminals and the number of crimes.

Paid care among older adults with long-term care needs declined in the first year of COVID-19 while families stepped in.

Separate strands of research have documented impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic in nursing homes and among paid and family caregivers, yet there is little evidence connecting changes in the residential decisions of older adults with the provision of paid and family care, limiting our ability to identify potential substitutions and gaps in care. Using the 2020 wave of the Health and Retirement Study linked to county-level COVID-19 mortality rates, we found that, among older adults with long-term care needs, higher county-level mortality rates were associated with a decline in nursing home residence and an increase in co-residence with adult children. These changes were coupled with a decline in the likelihood of receiving paid care and in the number of paid caregivers and an increase in the hours of unpaid care received. This analysis documents a reduction in nursing home residence and paid care during the first year of the pandemic and shows that families filled some of the resulting care gaps. Policymaking around long-term care should consider whether declines in the use of paid care are permanent and how they will affect the health of older Americans and their caregivers over the next decade.

The racialization of whiteness in migrants’ residential decisions: the case of Polish migrants in England

ABSTRACT There is a dearth of information on the link between racialised whiteness and migrants’ residential decisions in England. This article aims to address this knowledge gap by analysing the narratives of 41 Polish migrants who resided in England between 2015 and 2016. The investigation uncovers that race influenced their residential decisions in two primary ways: firstly, by the migrants relying on potentially harmful stereotypes to classify their neighbourhoods as safe or unsafe, and secondly, by how other residents racialised their whiteness, affecting their visibility and making them vulnerable to discrimination and racism. These experiences led to intricate spatial strategies of inclusion and exclusion, which have temporal dimensions and are shaped by the migrants’ interpretation of threat and their likelihood of encountering additional harmful encounters. The study's results hold significant implications for policymakers who are concerned with migrant integration, emphasizing the need for more inclusive spaces between migrants and existing residents.

Fine‐scale simulation of spatial population distribution by coupling GA–ABM and big data: A case study of Dongguan, China

AbstractCapturing spatial population distribution can offer useful information for urban planning to promote reasonable population distribution and allocate urban resource. Agent‐based model (ABM) based on the modeling idea of “bottom‐up” can offer the ability to simulate the complex individual behaviors that generate spatial population distribution. Previous ABMs were unable to be extended for simulation of spatial population distribution at a fine scale due to the shortage of fine characterization of the urban environment and the calibration of agents' behavior. This study filled these gaps by proposing a genetic algorithm‐ABM (GA–ABM) for fine‐scale simulation of spatial population distribution in a manufacturing metropolis. In this model, the employment and residential choice behaviors of agents were defined by the labor economic theory and discrete selection model. Multisource geospatial big data such as enterprise points‐of‐interest big data and building footprints data were used to finely characterize the labor market and urban environment to reflect the impact of agents' employment choices on their residential decision. Furthermore, the grid‐scale population investigation big data were combined with the GA to calibrate the agents' residential decision behaviors. The proposed model was used in Dongguan, the typical manufacturing metropolis in China. As a comparison, the expert‐experience‐based method‐ABM (EEBM–ABM) was also conducted by using the same data set. Through the comparison of the results produced by these two models, it was demonstrated that the model coefficient calibrated by GA could effectively reflect the agents' residential decisions. The calibrated GA–ABM is more capable than EEBM–ABM in simulating spatial population distribution in a manufacturing metropolis. Hence, the proposed model can be used to simulate spatial population distribution in a manufacturing metropolis which helps the urban planner to conduct scientific urban planning.

Gentrifying with family wealth: Parental gifts and neighbourhood sorting among young adult owner-occupants

This paper assesses the role of parental gifts in neighbourhood sorting among young adult homebuyers. We make use of high-quality individual-level registry data for two large urban metropolitan areas in the Netherlands. While previous studies have shown that young adults receiving gifts purchase more expensive housing, little is known about the role of gifts in where young adults buy. Our study finds that parental gifts flow into the housing market in a spatially-uneven way. Movers supported by substantial parental gifts are more likely to enter owner-occupied housing in high-status and gentrifying urban neighbourhoods compared to movers without gifts. This study shows that this can only partially be explained by household and parental characteristics and by the uneven distribution of housing values. The remaining effect suggests that parental gifts also play a role in trade-offs regarding spatial residential decision-making. The conclusion discusses the ramifications of our findings for debates on (re)production of class and intra-generational inequalities through housing, and provides avenues for further research.

Perspectives of Southwest Florida Homeowners and Real Estate Agents before Hurricane Ian

In September 2022, Hurricane Ian made landfall in southwest Florida, causing an estimated $67 billion in damage and the loss of almost 150 lives. Before this date, demand and house prices in this area were rising faster than anywhere else in the country. What did homeowners in southwest Florida believe about flood risk to their own homes, and what did real estate agents believe about the role of flood risk in the residential housing market? The survey research summarized in this article shows that not only did residents feel that they were not particularly at risk from flooding, but also that damaging floods would not affect future home values in their neighborhoods or for their own homes. We found that political party affiliation was strongly correlated with the direction and strength of these beliefs. Real estate agents also reported strong demand for low-elevation coastal housing, noting that coastal lifestyle outweighed the prospect of flooding in residential decision-making. They also observed that the detailed maps of flood risk that are now available at realtor.com for anyone browsing for houses for sale had no effect on homebuyers, and that most of their customers were generally unconcerned with flood risk.

Do Immigrants Move to Welfare? Subnational Evidence from Switzerland

AbstractThe welfare magnet hypothesis holds that immigrants are likely to relocate to regions with generous welfare benefits. Although this assumption has motivated extensive reforms to immigration policy and social programs, the empirical evidence remains contested. In this study, we assess detailed administrative records from Switzerland covering the full population of social assistance recipients between 2005 and 2015. By leveraging local variations in cash transfers and exogenous shocks to benefit levels, we identify how benefits shape intracountry residential decisions. We find limited evidence that immigrants systematically move to localities with higher benefits. The lack of significant welfare migration within a context characterized by high variance in benefits and low barriers to movement suggests that the prevalence of this phenomenon may be overstated. These findings have important implications in the European setting where subnational governments often possess discretion over welfare and parties frequently mobilize voters around the issue of “benefit tourism.”

Home in the hills: rural stayers in the Missouri Ozarks and Nebraska Sandhills

ABSTRACT Drawing on results from online surveys of the mobility of people who grew up in Missouri (2021) and Nebraska (2019), this article situates itself among emerging research on immobile rural populations. By using an immobility prospective, this research draws attention to the most influential factors in an individual’s active, intended, and deliberate decision to stay in two of the most rural regions of the United States: the Missouri Ozarks and the Nebraska Sandhills. The findings of both the Missouri and Nebraska Roots Migration Surveys suggest that deep familial roots and a sense of rurality among those who grow up in rural America bond individuals with their home places and influence their residential decision-making.

Progressive Taxation, Commuting Costs and Residential Decisions in Fiscally Decentralized Cities

Progressive Taxation, Commuting Costs and Residential Decisions in Fiscally Decentralized Cities

‘Love knows no (spatial) boundaries?‘: Investigating diversity in the residential location choices of rural-residing couples upon union formation

This paper focuses on the residential location choices made by rural-residing couples with diverse residential biographies at union formation. We explore how this decision-making process is navigated and negotiated as a newly formed household. The study is informed by prior research that has aided our understanding of the relational nature of moving and staying processes, and the integral role of life course transitions in shaping residential decisions. We use data from the wider STAYin(g)Rural project, including a large household survey and in-depth interviews with individuals living in rural Northern Ireland (specifically, the case study site of the Clogher Valley, County Tyrone) who have undergone union formation, and decided to either move to, or stay within, the area. We find that, despite considerable heterogeneity within and between couples in their residential biographies, several common, often inter-related, themes dominated their rural residential location choices. Underpinning much of the desire to live and stay in the rural was a strong sense of belonging and attachment to the area, with a complex interplay of economic, environmental, geographical, and social factors acting to enable staying. Clear generational differences in the decision-making process emphasise the importance of exploring distinctions between and across life course stages in studies that aim to understand the process of (rural) staying.

Warszawa jako miejsce zamieszkania w opinii nieheteronormatywnych mieszkańców

The aim of the article is to identify the residential preferences of non-heteronormative individuals living in Warsaw and to determine the factors that are most important to this group of residents when choosing a place to live. Understanding these preferences can help in better shaping the city’s housing and spatial policies, supporting inclusivity and equality for all its residents. To achieve this goal, a survey was conducted among LGBT+ individuals in Warsaw between March 1 and April 30, 2020, with responses received from 100 participants. The results of the study reveal the complexity of residential decisions for this group, which are shaped by a variety of factors. LGBT+ individuals choose their places of residence not only based on pragmatic aspects but also in search of environments where they can feel accepted and safe. The study found general satisfaction with living in Warsaw and identified central districts as the most LGBT+ friendly areas.

Co-Reasoning With the Significant Other(s): How Childless Older Adults in Rural China Make Residential Decisions.

Applying the concept of residential co-reasoning, this research explored the role of the next of kin in the residential decision-making of childless older adults in rural China. We examined research questions regarding who, if anyone, had been the significant other(s) during the residential decision-making, and how they conducted the co-reasoning process. A constructivist grounded theory approach was applied, with 27 childless older adults being interviewed. We found that participants tended to choose to age in place if they had a continuous, reliable, and trustworthy relationship with certain members of next of kin, which they referred to as "I have someone at home." Acquiring care from kin was an ongoing negotiation process. Participants applied three types of negotiations: exchanging properties for care from kin; maintaining relational intimacy with kin; and counting on the filial obligation of kin. Otherwise, if care from kin was unavailable, participants tended to relocate to rural institutions.

Leaving, Staying in and Returning to the Hometown

Couples' residential decisions are based on a large variety of factors including housing preferences, family and other social ties, socialisation and residential biography (e.g. earlier experience in the life course) and environmental factors (e.g. housing market, labour market). This study examines, firstly, to what extent people stay in, return to or leave their hometown (referred to as ‘migration type’). We refer to the hometown as the place where most of childhood and adolescence is spent. Secondly, we study which conditions shape a person’s migration type. We mainly focus on variables capturing elements of the residential biography and both partners’ family ties and family socialisation. We focus on the residential choices made at the time of family formation, i.e. when the first child is born. We employ multinomial regression modelling and cross-tabulations, based on two generations in a sample of families who mostly live in the wider Ruhr area, born around 1931 (parents) and 1957 (adult children). We find that migration type is significantly affected by a combination of both partners' place of origin, both partners' parents' places of residence, the number of previous moves, level of education and hometown population size. We conclude that complex patterns of experience made over the life course, socialisation and gendered patterns are at work. These mechanisms should be kept in mind when policymakers develop strategies to attract (return) migrants.

Partisan residential sorting on climate change risk

Is climate change partisanship reflected in residential decisions? Comparing individual properties in the same zip code with similar elevation and proximity to the coast, houses exposed to sea level rise (SLR) are increasingly more likely to be owned by Republicans and less likely to be owned by Democrats. We find a partisan residency gap for even moderately SLR exposed properties of more than 5 percentage points, which has more than doubled over the past six years. Findings are unchanged controlling flexibly for other individual demographics and a variety of granular property characteristics, including the value of the home. Residential sorting manifests among owners regardless of occupancy, but not among renters, and is driven by long-run SLR exposure but not current flood risk. Anticipatory sorting on climate change suggests that households that are most likely to vote against climate friendly policies and least likely to adapt may ultimately bear the burden of climate change.

Mechanisms for increased school segregation relative to residential segregation: a model-based analysis

Excess school segregation is a phenomena observed across many countries and one common explanation from the literature is the hypothesis that parents might want to live in a diverse neighbourhood, but when it comes to their children, they are less tolerant with respect to school compositions. This study uses an agent-based model where households face residential decisions depending on neighbourhood compositions and make school choices based on distance and school compositions. Results indicate that increased school segregation relative to residential segregation can be observed in large parts of the parameter space, even when the tolerance for households belonging to the other group is equal for neighbourhood and school compositions. Our results demonstrate that asymmetric preferences are not a requirement for excess school segregation and show that residential segregation combined with distance preferences play a key role in this increase.

Gender and Residential Decision-Making in the Rural Great Plains

Gender and Residential Decision-Making in the Rural Great Plains