Households may undertake housing changes and modifications (HCMs) for two basic reasons ñ increasing property value and gaining personal utility. In environmentally unfavourable or physically deteriorated neighbourhoods, in which no substantial price gain can be expected, HCMs may be motivated mainly by improving personal utility, rather than by maximizing return on HCMs. As a result, in such neighbourhoods relatively little accumulation of HCMs may occur. To verify this hypothesis, eight residential neighbourhoods in two large cities of Israel ñ Jerusalem and Haifa, were analyzed. The incidence of HCMs was found to be related to neighbourhood and building characteristics, while the amount of accumulated post-occupancy HCMs helped to explain the variation of selling prices of apartments and houses.