Are movers irrational? On travel patterns, housing characteristics, social interactions, and happiness before and after a move

Abstract Auto use in the United States is too high, and land uses are too spread out, due to market failures in transportation along with municipal restrictions on density that make residential choices suboptimal. Residential choices may also be suboptimal if households make irrational decisions when deciding where to live and how to get around—failing to account for time spent commuting, overvaluing privacy and material goods like housing, or undervaluing time spent on social activities. Such hypotheses from the behavioral economics literature have rarely been empirically explored with regard to residential location decisions. We surveyed 84 individuals, primarily university students, at two points in time: about six months apart, before and after moving. The questions included measures of self-reported well-being, travel patterns, social connections, housing characteristics, and neighborhoods, along with socioeconomic and personality measures. In controlled statistical models we found that changes in the number of close friends, time spent bicycling, and the number of visits carried out on foot to visit friends and family were positively associated with changes in well-being. These influences were stronger than the influence of housing characteristics in almost all cases. Changes in the time spent commuting by auto were not significantly correlated with changes in well-being. When choosing a residence, movers prioritized housing characteristics over social factors despite the fact that social factors and active transport were generally more correlated with well-being. However, the results do suggest people may improve their residential location decisions as they get older.