RESIDENTIAL SEARCH BEHAVIOR AND URBAN HOUSING MARKET FROM THE VIEW OF GENDER

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The aim of this study is to analyze the residential choice process of single women and factors affecting this process. To identify these factors, this study adopted a multi-method approach which is expected to compensate the limitations of quantitative and qualitative methods. This study used four types of data obtained from (a) census data, (b) questionnaire survey, (c) focus group interview, and (d) in-depth interview. The results obtained can be summarized as follows:(1) In 1995, the number of the households of single women at the ages of 30-39 remarkably increased at a rate of 24% during the past five years. As a result, real estate companies have interested in this subgroup of the household as a novel target in the housing market.(2) Spatial distribution of single women at this ages concentrates western part of inner area in the vicinities of the CBD, which implies that they attach importance to the accessibility of their workplace. This reasoning was tested by analyzing the questionnaire data. The result of the analysis shows that the most of the samples work at offices in and around the CBD engaging in clerical or professional jobs; their commuting times are less than 60 minutes being below its average of Tokyo. In addition, the majority of the samples show centripetal migration patterns. Their reason for residential choice further confirmed our reasoning mentioned above.(3) A qualitative analysis of the interview data not only confirms the facts elicited by the quantitative method but also shows that security of the residential environment is an important factor affecting the choice.