Residential satisfaction is not only an important component of individuals' quality of life but also determines the way they respond to residential environment. An understanding of the factors that facilitate a satisfied or dissatisfied response can play a critical part in making successful housing policies. This study reinvestigates the effects of housing, neighborhood, and household characteristics on individuals' satisfaction with both dwelling and neighborhood, in order to reconcile the inconsistencies in the previous research. The empirical analysis uses data drawn from the American Housing Survey (AHS) and ordered logit models (OLM). OLM is more appropriate than the widely-used regression technique in such analysis due to the ordinal nature of the dependent variables representing satisfaction. The results show that residential satisfaction is a complex construct, affected by a variety of environmental and socio-demographic variables. While the actual effects of the variables by and large confirm earlier findings in the literature, significant differences between the results from the OLM and regression models were found. This indicates that regression models should be used with caution and their results accepted with a grain of salt.

Research on migration decisionmaking has been centered on the notion that residential satisfaction and mobility intentions are intervening variables which fully mediate the effects of structural factors on moving behavior. Results from empirical studies, however, have rendered only modest support for this view. The author examines the role of residential satisfaction and mobility intentions vis-à-vis structural variables in migration decisionmaking with the aid of data drawn from the 1985–1989 waves of the American Housing Survey. A conceptual model is derived which is based on behavioral theories developed in social psychology, namely the theories of reasoned action and planned behavior. Several previously ignored links among structural variables, mobility predispositions, and moving behavior are incorporated. Empirical analyses show that, although satisfaction and intentions are important predictors of mobility, most of the structural variables that are commonly known to be related to migration also have direct effects on subsequent moving behavior, independent of satisfaction and intentions. The theories of reasoned action and planned behavior provide a theoretical framework for a better understanding of the complex relationships between structural variables, residential satisfaction, mobility intentions, and behavior.

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