Data derived from heads of households (50% American Indian, 10% black and 40%white) living in a large (a 25% sample) and a small rural (a 50% sample) Louisiana community were used in conjunction with a pictorial survey of the respondents' houses to evaluate satisfaction with housing in terms of both objective and subjective housing indicators. The variables employed were: subjective housing satisfaction; outsider housing ratings; objective housing characteristics (convenience items, number of rooms, number of persons per room, and residence type); resident characteristics (age, income, education, sex, and race); other subjective evaluation (best possible vs worst possible situation and a series of 3 community satisfaction scales based upon responses to a 21-item questionnaire re respondent's community). Some findings were: correlations between age and residence satisfaction, between income and education and outward appearance of residence, between race and satisfaction (non-whites were less satisfied with their housing), between housing appearance and race, and between satisfaction with housing and satisfaction with community services and social environment; low correlation between outsider housing scores and other subjective factors; no correlation between housing satisfaction and physical environment and between sex and housing satisfaction. It was concluded that if the goals of housing policy include improved quality of life, simple objective measures of housing quality provide insufficient data. (JC)