COVID-19 Impact on Residential Preferences in the Early-Stage Outbreak in South Korea

In the early stage of the COVID-19 pandemic in South Korea, public fear or social scaring of urban living was observed, which caused people to change their daily routines. This study examines how the COVID-19 pandemic affected residential choice and perceptions of urban living. We analyzed self-reported survey data collected from 2000 participants in Seoul, Daegu, and Kyeongbuk in South Korea between 3–6 August 2020, targeting the relatively controlled period after the first COVID-19 outbreak. Logistic regression models were used to examine concerns of urban living and residence relocation consideration. Those who were aged 30 or older, regularly commuting, not feeling healthy, with a household size of two, and living in a low-rise condominium were more likely to be concerned with urban living. Those who were aged 40 or older and living in a townhouse or a single-detached house were more likely to consider moving to a less dense area. People perceived that their daily routine changed substantially after the pandemic. Certain participant groups showed concerns of urban living and relocation consideration, suggesting housing policy implications.

Obstacles and opportunities for reducing dwelling size to shrink the environmental footprint of housing: Tenants’ residential preferences and housing choice

The environmental footprint of housing is greatly influenced by the size of a dwelling. Housing size is the result of households’ dwelling selections; accordingly, it is critical to consider residential preferences and choices to inform efforts towards housing sustainability. This study aimed to understand tenants’ preferences for and choices of housing size as one amongst several dwelling characteristics and identify obstacles and opportunities for reducing size in the light of promoting sustainable housing. We employed logistic regression models to analyse a survey with 878 Swiss tenants, and our results identify preference for large dwellings as a major obstacle for reducing dwelling size among affluent tenants. Conversely, tenants with lower income might be forced to move to a smaller dwelling due to financial constraints or attribute higher importance to the financial benefit of lower rents. However, financial disincentives along with substantial non-monetary costs of moving, such as the disruption of local bonds and the difficulty of finding a satisfactory dwelling, can outweigh the benefits of moving to a smaller dwelling. To overcome such obstacles, we suggest offering incentives and other facilitating measures for downsizing moves as well as ensuring an adequate supply of smaller dwellings capable of providing high living quality. We highlight the potential of studying housing functions to conceptualize dwellings fulfilling these requirements.

Tenants’ residential mobility in Switzerland: the role of housing functions

The interaction between residential preferences and dwellings is a complex system whose function thus far remains insufficiently explored. In this paper, we investigate housing functions as orchestrators of households’ residential mobility in the context of Swiss rental housing. We propose a theoretical multi-step model and use survey data from 878 Swiss tenants to inspect the model’s linkages. From the statistical analysis, we firstly observe that tenants’ residential satisfaction is more likely to increase when the gap between ideal housing functions and those actually fulfilled by the current dwelling decreases. Secondly, results show that the effectiveness of an event (e.g. a job opportunity) in triggering the move is significantly related to both residential satisfaction and the functions the dwelling fulfils prior to the trigger. Thirdly, findings show that these trigger events can be grouped into three types: radical change, problem-solving and opportunity. With a medium effect size, a radical change was found to bring about the strongest change in housing functions between past and current dwellings. Lastly, in line with the hypothesis that residential preferences vary over the life course, socio-demographic characteristics and tenancy types are found to be significant explanatory variables for households’ ideal housing functions. By disentangling the complexity of the housing system, the proposed multi-step model can be used to integrate households’ preferences with supply-side constraints in agent-based model simulations, thereby contributing to fostering the provision of quality housing, i.e. dwellings able to meet the needs of current and future occupants.

Resurgent Ethnicity and Residential Choice Among Second-generation Asian Americans in a Los Angeles Panethnic Suburb

We draw on forty-six in-depth interviews with residents of Cerritos, California, a middle-class majority Asian suburb in Los Angeles County to explore the meaning of resurgent ethnicity and the ways in which a racialized identity informs residential preferences and choice among second-generation Asian Americans. Findings suggest that second-generation Asian Americans are choosing to reside in a place that offers cultural and class-based amenities that reflects a multiethnic sensibility. They also make residential choices based on family ties to strengthen and maintain intergenerational relations and share mutual social and economic resources. For second-generation Asian Americans, this racially dominant but ethnically diverse spatial settlement also provides a sense of belonging, signifying the continuing significance of race among middle-class, acculturated racial minority groups. As U.S. ethnic populations continue to grow and continue the trend of suburbanization and segregation, understanding such places and their implications will become increasingly important.

Exploring the Ethnic Immigrant Inflows from Latin America to Canada: 1981-2016

Using 2016 census data, the study carried out five socio-demographic explorations regarding 25 ethnic immigrant inflows from Latin America to Canada occurring between 1981 and 2016. The population represented by these inflows comprised approximately 470 thousand immigrants. The data was drawn from two special 2016 census tables which collected information on immigrants' admission categories (economic, family and refugee) and their reported ethnic ancestries. Explorations focused on the following aspects: census counts and periods of arrival, residential preferences, admission class mix, population configurations and human capital attainment profiles. Five main historical immigrant waves had been already been identified by Canadian scholars: Lead or Eurolatino, Andean, Coup, Central American and Technological or Professional. Evidence of the presence of these immigrant waves was found in the census data explorations undertaken. Census figures revealed that the largest ethnic immigrant inflow corresponded to those reporting Spanish ancestry (158 thousand or 34% of the total) followed by the Colombian, Mexican, Salvadoran and Peruvian inflows. Residential concentrations in the provinces of Ontario and Quebec were also detected. Explorations suggest that "Latino" communities in Canada are emerging as the demographic product of a mixture of admission classes which are uniquely distributed in age-gender cohorts of their respective population configurations. Human capital attainment explorations revealed that inflow members of the working populations corresponding to the fifth technological or professional wave from countries such as Venezuela, Mexico, Brazil and Colombia ranked at top levels of education and income achievements, those admitted as economic class in particular. The study of Latin American ethnic inflows to Canada is especially relevant for social policy because it represents a "collective" case study where the researcher is able to summarize a complex immigration picture through the examination of the geographical region representing a sample of units which ensures maximum variation in terms of several push-pull migratory factors at work.