Residential choice location, gender and the commute trip to work in Tel Aviv

Abstract

This paper investigates various factors influencing individual’s choice of residence location and the role of the commute trip on that decision. It tries to identify how residential decisions are influenced by socio-economics variables and neighborhood characteristics with emphasis on behavioral differences between the genders. The analysis is based on the Israel Census data for the Tel Aviv metropolitan area and uses both descriptive statistics and estimation of a logit choice model. The results show the important of both the area characteristics and the commute distance in choosing residential location and significant differences between men and women. The importance of commute distance in residential location choice decreases with increase in one’s level of income, level of education, and number of car in one’s household. The results are consistent with existing research literature with new emphasis on the effect of income.

Introduction

This work investigates various factors influencing individual’s choice of residence location with emphasis on the importance of the commute distance on that decision and tries to identify gender and socio-economic differences regarding their influence.

Residential choice location is influenced by many variables including socio-economic characteristics, life cycle, location of work and other major activities such as schools, shopping, family and friend, real estate values, and characteristics of the residential and workplace area. Some people may choose their work location based on their residential locations while others may choose their residential location given their work location, or some may make these choices simultaneously. In any case, the commute trips that people make daily affect residential location choice and at the same time are derived from this location. Living close to the workplace reduces vehicle kilometer of travel and thus contribute to a more sustainable transportation system.

In choosing residential location, according to economic theory individuals try to maximize their utility from their residential unit, area location characteristics, distances to various desired activity locations considering budget and other constraints. This paper focuses on identification and evaluation of the principal factors influencing this decision using the Israeli Census data for the Tel Aviv metropolitan area. The relative importance of these factors is investigated, with emphasis on the role of the commute distance and how it varies by gender and socio-economic status.

In general, four principal groups of factors influence decisions of residence location and are examined in this work:

• Dwelling unit characteristics – size, design, parking, noise levels, view, age of building, type of dwelling (house/condo/apartment) and other specific characteristics that may vary among individuals.

• Location characteristics – factors relating to the quality of the residential unit itself and the immediate environment belonging to this group. The immediate environment affects the quality of residence and household’s way of life. Examples for such factors are socio-economic status of the area, quality of education and safety, shopping and leisure opportunities, traffic, noise and air pollution.

• Accessibility characteristics – access from the area to various urban functions and activities that the individual needs or wants to participate in including work, shopping and leisure. The trip to work, unlike trips for most purposes, is undertaken daily; therefore, it is hypothesized that it has more significant influence on residential choice than other trips.

• The individual’s characteristics – socio-economic variables like life cycle stage (marital status, children, etc.) education, and income.

Residential location choice is a household decision, however for simplicity and to study the relations between the commute distance (or time) and the individual’s gender as well as other attributes, this work is based on individual’s choice of residence location. The analysis includes both descriptive statistics and logit models of residential choices. This is the first work investigating residential choice estimation in Israel with a unique data set that enable inclusion of a variety of variables.