Abstract
The study was conducted to analyze whether the recent trends in preference toward small and medium-sized housing in Korea represent changes in space norms. To accomplish this, the existing data from Statistics Korea and two different empirical data sets collected in 2007 and 2012 from Ulsan, Korea, were statistically analyzed through descriptive statistics, cross-tabulation analysis with a chi-squared test and multiple regression analysis. In the analyses, the space norms of households were compared and any changes in the space norms and the related factors were determined. The space norms were mainly investigated in terms of the housing size and the number of rooms. The results are as follows: 1) since 2010, there have been changes in the housing stock distribution in terms of size. Stocks of small housing increased, while those of medium and large housing decreased. Nevertheless, the overall conditions of spatial density have improved considerably in the recent 30 years. 2) It was found that there were statistically significant differences between 2007 and 2012 in space norms. The norms for housing sized less than 99 m2 and with one or two rooms were found to have increased, while that for housing sized more than 132 m2 decreased. 3) Household size, education of the head, monthly household income, housing type and the number of bedrooms in the current dwelling were the significant explanatory variables of space norms.