Assessing the importance of housing, accessibility, and transportation characteristics on stated neighbourhood preference

Beyond socioeconomic circumstance, residential location decisions are also predicated on many housing, transportation, and accessibility characteristics. Consequently, greater insight is needed on how these myriad characteristics are valued by individuals and connected to their neighbourhood preference to inform planners and decision makers concerned with urban growth patterns. Unfortunately, forecasting methods commonly lack the specificity needed to recognize how residential environment preferences influence future housing, land use, and transportation decisions. Often, these policy instruments rely exclusively on a set of observed socioeconomic characteristics to measure heterogeneity in revealed location decisions. Using stated preference data collected in Portland, Oregon, this study employed structural equation modelling techniques to examine the influence of these socioeconomic measures and latent constructs of rated single-family dwelling and non-automotive access importance on stated neighbourhood preference. Our study's findings suggest the importance placed on certain bundles of housing, transportation, and accessibility attributes, and not socioeconomic circumstance, directly affected neighbourhood preference.