Modeling the Choice of Residential Location and Home Type: Recent Movers in Austin, Texas

This paper uses a series of nested logit models to investigate recent mover preferences for location choice and home type. A comparison of alternative model specifications illuminate the nature of purchase, recognizing location attributes as well as home size and cost. Sample data come from a survey of home buyers in Austin, Texas and parameter estimates support the notion that home type is an upper-nest decision, relative to location, with homes of similar type exhibiting more correlation in unobserved components than those within a single location. With a particular home type in mind, location choice may become constrained by home availability across locations of the urban area. Thus, a focus simply on residential location choice can lead to a misunderstanding of the home search and residential development process.