Understanding stated neighborhood preferences: The roles of lifecycle stage, mobility style, and lifestyle aspirations

Stated neighborhood preference is informed by a host of factors describing an individual's socioeconomic condition, current environmental context, recent transportation decisions, and future aspirations for certain housing and accessibility attributes. To date, travel applications and behavioral models investigating the residential location choice process have been parsimonious in differentiating decision-makers and the available neighborhood supply. This Portland, Oregon study used stated preference survey data and an integrated choice and latent variable modeling framework to provide a new awareness of the relationships between an individual's lifecycle stage, mobility style, lifestyle aspirations, and underlying preference in residential environment. Specifically, we found that aspirations regarding housing and accessibility were strong predictors of stated neighborhood preferences, while mobility style was also closely associated with these lifestyle aspirations. Also, consistent with a narrative of gentrification, high income households preferred more urban environments with better multimodal access.