Using a questionnaire survey dataset with 4,120 respondents, this paper examines the impacts of individuals' attributes on their preferences to various Quality of Life factors, as well as whether the actual choices of city reflects their preferences. For QOL factors such as the public transit, access to work, natural environment and clean air/water, satisfaction levels show clear geographical patterns and access-related factors earn high scores in the city center, whereas the nature-related factors are higher in the suburb. In these attributes, correlation between city residents' emphasis on these attributes and satisfaction scores are high, suggesting that people can successfully choose the place of living according to their emphases. For other factors, such as childcare/education and other public services provided by the municipalities, residential preferences for and the city’s offerings are rarely aligned. One possible reason is that the information on the level and availability of these services is difficult for prospective residents to know.