Alvin L. Bertrand

Consumer Preferences and Selected Socioeconomic Variables Related to Physical Adequacy of Housing

To a large extent, the adequacy of physical conditions of housing is considered to be associated with the consumers preferences for alternative consumption items and various socioeconomic characteristics of that consumer. The relationships of housing adequacy to race, town, tenure, wifes education, occupational prestige of the head of household, family income, and preferences for long- and short-range alternatives to housing were analyzed to determine which socioeconomic conditions and preferences were related to housing adequacy. The sample consisted of 361 females in two culturally different, small Louisiana communities with less than 6,500 populations. Orthogonal factor analysis of the attitude items, followed by least squares analysis of variance or simple linear correlations, where statistically appropriate, was used to determine significant differences in the adequacy of housing factor scores. Housing was significantly less adequate for blacks, for those living in the north Louisi ana community, and for those who lived in rented houses. The families of females who possessed lower levels of education and the families of males who worked at jobs with lower occupational prestige also lived in less adequate housing. The females who did not prefer to spend their resources on long-range alternatives to housing lived in less adequate housing. Thus, both socioeconomic variables and consumer preferences were directly associated with housing adequacy. The theoretical proposition that consumer preferences serve as an attitudinal link between the socioeconomic variables and housing adequacy was not supported by our data. The socioeconomic variables were related to housing adequacy but not generally related to consumer preferences. Only the socioeconomic variable, town, was related to consumer preferences.