Long term determinants of activity travel patterns : reasons for moving house in a dynamic housing context

The main goal of this paper is to understand the prevalence and covariates of reasons to move house. A mixed logit model is formulated to estimate the relative importance of these reasons, which were classified into 5 groups: family, health, study/work, previous house and/or its environment and distance to social contacts. The data used for the analysis is the 2012 Dutch Housing Demand Survey (WoON). The sample includes 2,499 respondents who indicated residential relocation within the last two years. The reasons for moving house were investigated as a function of socio-demographic characteristics, housing features and urbanization levels. A mixed-logit model was formulated to estimate the importance of reasons to move. Differences can generally be explained in terms of individuals’ needs, constraints and preferences, which are strongly related to lifecycle phase.