Understanding residential location choices: an application of the UrbanSim residential location model on Suwon, Korea

The residential location choice model is an effective tool to analyze the actual household demand for housing and better living environments, and many researchers have developed various residential location choice models. In this study, a residential location choice model using a discrete choice modelling framework within UrbanSim is applied to Suwon, Korea with the following aims: (1) to investigate factors affecting residential location choice in Suwon, (2) to forecast changes in household residential locations, and (3) to derive policy implications for the local housing market. An extensive database of parcels, households, jobs, land prices, and transportation networks is geocoded on the basis of grid cells that measure 150 × 150 metres. The estimation results show that access to employment opportunities, the ratio of housing cost to income, mixed land use, and the year that housing was built are important factors in determining household residential locations in Suwon. In addition, different age and income groups have different residential location preferences. UrbanSim, a highly disaggregated microsimulation model, is employed to forecast changes in household residential locations using the estimation results of the residential location choice model. These suggest that different income groups show different migration patterns.