Houses, condos or apartments? New study shows where people want to live

Jon Bell

Staff Reporter- Portland Business Journal

 

Price, neighborhood safety and commuting times notwithstanding, the majority of metro-area residents want to live in detached, single-family homes.
So say the results of a new study that looked at housing preferences of residents of the four-county metro region. Conducted by Portland marketing research firm DHM Research for a range of partners, including Metro, the cities of Portland and Hillsboro, Portland State University and the Home Builders Association of Metropolitan Portland, the study found that 80 percent of respondents prefer detached, single-family housing.
Sixty-five percent of the respondents — more than 7,300 people from two different survey tracks — currently live in such homes. Seven percent of those living in single family, detached homes responded that they would actually prefer living in single-family attached housing, such as a condominium.
The study also found that 56 percent of respondents live in a suburban neighborhood; just over half prefer that kind of a neighborhood. About a quarter live in urban centers, 11 percent live downtown and 8 percent live in rural settings.
Dave Nielsen, CEO of the Portland HBA, said the study should prove valuable not only to homebuilders and developers, but also to planners sizing up the area's urban growth boundary and deciding whether to enlarge it or not.
"It will be very useful to help our industry understand market preferences and adapt where needed," he said. "It should also be an important tool used by Metro and surrounding governments in their planning for growth."
The entire study, as well as an executive summary, is available on Metro's web site.

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