REAL ESTATE SALESMEN AND RESIDENTIAL RELOCATION DECISIONS

A decade ago Simmons (1968) reviewed studies in "an important, but relatively neglected, aspect of migration, namely changes in residence that take place within a city." Since the appearance of Simmons' review intra-urban residential mobility has generated a burgeoning literature underpinned by the assumption that it is a significant mechanism contributing to the structuring of urban space. The literature focuses principally on residential relocation and its identification as a process rather than as a set of events to be explained. Central to the process orientation is the assumption that changes of residence are the expression of a set of decisions made by households. The major deficiency of the literature to date is its failure to specify an appropriate context within which to analyse such decisions.