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Despite the sizable literature on residential preferences in recent years, underlying motivational factors have been lacking attention, especially at the value level. Further, traditional questionnaire-based methods fail to explicate stated preferences as the subjective aspect of residential satisfaction; thus, filling these gaps calls for novel research methods. Applying the Means-End Chain theory (MEC), Hierarchical Value Map (HVM) and laddering technique, the current study aimed to grasp how residents prefer various housing attributes to achieve functional and psycho-social consequences and how these consequences are associated with their values. The obtained HVMs identified six key MECs in two levels of the house and neighborhood from the interviews conducted with 60 residents in Gonbad Kavoos, Iran. The findings demonstrated that the respondents attached much significance to the attributes of dwelling size, number of bedrooms, green yard, single-family house, neighborhood management and neighborhood reputation to achieve the values of benevolence, hedonism, achievement, power and security in six key MECs. Plus, the results indicated how social-economic groups differ in choosing the MECs. The article's findings contribute to understanding the intrinsic motivation of residential preferences and housing choices by addressing the residents' cognitive structures and meanings. The paper's empirical findings and some discussions on residential environments can be beneficial for housing designers as well as policymakers. Moreover, the paper discusses the theoretical expansion of residential satisfaction by addressing cultural values. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]