Core services continue to be most important, with walkability too

The National Association of Realtors conducts a poll every three years around community preferences about their neighborhood and transportation. Here is the Executive Summary from the last report which was just released:

Results from the 2023 Community and Transportation Preferences Survey generally continue the trends from previous surveys. Residents in the top fifty metropolitan areas remain split on what they look for in a neighborhood. One noticeable difference is a modest uptick in measures of importance of walkability.

In general, people in the largest 50 MSA’s are satisfied with the quality of life in their communities – as they have been in each of our previous surveys. If they were deciding where to live today, they would place high importance on low levels of crime, sidewalks and walkability, as well as short commutes and easy access to the highway.
In terms of priorities for their state and local governments, about three-quarters of residents place the highest priority on maintaining and repairing roads, highways, freeways and bridges. A number of other issues are in the second tier, with half placing a high priority on building more roads, expanding public transportation, providing alternatives to driving, and developing more walkable communities.
Most Americans continue to agree that they like to walk and drive, while almost half agree that they like to ride a bike and in an uptick from previous years, 44 percent like to take transit. The things that keep people from doing more walking are places being too far away to walk and the need for a vehicle for work or school.

I think there can be problems with stated preferences, as it is only when one must choose that one realizes where their preferences lie. That said there is a lot of interesting information in the report. Note first that personal safety will never go out of style. It will always stand well above other priorities.

The surprising number in this chart, one I would challenge, is the relatively low importance of schools.

Core issues such as road maintenance continue to be a need voiced by all generations.

If you thumb through all the slides you will see that the gas tax is not popular.