Publications
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American urban regions undergo constant change as people,
housing units, and communities age; individuals’ tastes change and people move;
firms relocate and the mix of businesses changes; houses are built, converted to
or from other uses, or torn down; and so on.
These changes are a part of a regional economic system of people, firms,
and government activity and are influenced by growth in real incomes, changes in
individuals’ needs over their life cycle, the quality of local public goods and
services, and the costs associated with living in a particular community. In turn, these factors have fundamental
impacts on the evolution of urban form and in particular, on the increasing
breadth and decreasing density of American urban areas.
This research on homeowner
satisfaction and mobility choices seeks to better understand the factors that
influence homeowner satisfaction with their house, neighborhood, and public
school district and how these factors influence household migration patterns and
the evolution of urban form within a metropolitan area. This research began with a survey of
households that undertook moves within Franklin County, the central county of
the Columbus, Ohio metropolitan area, in 1995.
Hazel A. Morrow-Jones, Associate Professor in the City and Regional
Planning Department at the Ohio State University, is the original principal
investigator for this project. Since
then, another survey of movers in 1998 within the Central Ohio region has been
conducted as well as two surveys of homeowners in 2001. This research has generated a variety of
research outputs, including three Master’s student theses and a number of
papers, reports, and presentations.
Research has focused on a variety of issues related to homeowner
satisfaction and mobility, including the role of school quality, public
services, income, and preferences over neighborhood racial composition in
household relocation choices; the impact of household relocation decisions on
urban form and sprawl; the relationship between sprawl and older suburb
communities; the implications of household relocation for regional cooperation;
the differences in housing preferences between urbanites and suburbanites; and
the impacts of the September 11th terrorist attacks on homeowner
satisfaction and relocation and remodeling choices.
May 2002: Research Report on Preliminary Findings of
the Impact of September 11th on Household Satisfaction and Residential Location
Decisions (NSF SGER Funded Research)
Neighborhood satisfaction survey has been once again
conducted in the spring of 2004. 2600
survey samples were mailed out to random selected homeowners in Franklin
County. 837 samples were received (32%
return rate). The survey responses
provide valuable information on what individuals value most in their
neighborhoods. The Center has compiled
some basic statistical analysis. Click
here to view the results.
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