China’s fast urbanization, population growth, and housing reform policies contributes significantly to urban sprawl, environment degradation, and excessive commuting in major cities in recent decades. This research investigates factors directly or indirectly affecting job-housing relation, which is described by employment options, residence choice, and commuting patterns, in three types of communities in Beijing, China. Descriptive statistics and structure equation models using variables for household socio-economic status, individual preference, home-workplace distance, and commuting behavior are implemented. The results indicate that traditional and semi-Danwei community residents have a more balanced job-housing relation, shorter daily commuting time and lower dependency on motor vehicles than residents of non-Danwei community. This research also finds that income, housing qualities, distance from home to workplace, community elementary schools and daycare centers, and sense of belonging significantly affect the choice of community when purchasing houses. These findings show that China’s job-housing relation are dramatically different in the plan economy in which Danwei housing-employment was popular with low vehicle dependency and shorter commuting time. In the free market economy today, non-Danwei housing-employment is dominant with high vehicle dependency and longer commuting distance.