An analysis on elderly housing preference using structural equation model: Focusing on silver town

Previous empirical researches on elderly housing preference show controversial findings; for example, Sun (2004) found women like silver town more than men do, but Park (2005) found the opposite. This controversial outcome is an example of Simpson's Paradox, so we need to group old people into subgroups. We hypothesize that elderly peoples' personal inclination affects housing preference. This research investigates the linkage between elderly peoples' personal inclination and their preference for silver town. To overcome the complexity of housing choice, we used a Structural Equation Model (SEM). We surveyed 350 prospective elderly people, whose ages' ranged from 45 to 65. 293 surveys were returned with proper answers. We extracted six latent criteria, which affect elderly peoples' housing choice, using factor analysis. The criteria include location, capital gain, monthly fee, amenity, convenience, and security. This research finds that old people who are concerned with proximity to city, low monthly fee, and high security tend to prefer silver towns to other housing options. This research confirms that location is the most important factor of silver towns.