Determinants of neighbourhood satisfaction and perceived neighbourhood reputation

It has been suggested that residential mobility behaviour and general well-being of residents of urban neighbourhoods are not only influenced by how residents themselves assess their neighbourhood, but also by how they think other city residents see their neighbourhood: the perceived neighbourhood reputation. There is a large body of literature on residents' satisfaction with their neighbourhood, but much less is known about how residents perceive the reputation of their own neighbourhood. Such knowledge might give important clues on how to improve the well-being of residents in deprived neighbourhoods by not only direcdy improving the factors that affect their own level of satisfaction, but also by improving the factors that residents think have a negative effect on the reputation of their neighbourhood. This paper examines whether there are differences in the determinants of neighbourhood satisfaction and the perceived neighbourhood reputation. Using data from a purpose designed survey to study neighbourhood reputations in the city of Utrecht, the Netherlands, we found that subjective assessment of the dwelling and neighbourhood attributes are more important in explaining neighbourhood satisfaction than in explaining perceived neighbourhood reputation. Objective neighbourhood variables are more important in explaining perceived neighbourhood reputation than in explaining neighbourhood satisfaction.