Housing Policy, Residential Mobility, and Inequality: New Perspectives on Residential Change

Session Submission Type: Panel

Abstract

This panel brings together four studies examining the causes and consequences of residential mobility in diverse global contexts. Collectively, these papers investigate how housing policies, property changes, and socioeconomic shocks influence when and where families move—or are unable to move—and what these mobility patterns reveal about broader structures of inequality. Drawing on a range of empirical methods, geographic settings, and conceptual frameworks, the panel explores how both voluntary and involuntary mobility are shaped by institutional forces, economic constraints, and racial and class hierarchies. Central to all four papers is a concern with how housing systems mediate access to housing stability for low-income households. 

The first paper, “Property Sales and Residential Mobility”, analyzes how real estate transactions and structural changes to rental housing affect where children live and attend school in North Carolina. This study uses a newly expanded dataset covering all counties in the state to examine the intersection of mobility, homelessness, and school continuity. The findings challenge the assumption that residential instability automatically results in school disruptions, and highlight the role of both family strategies and institutional safeguards in preserving educational continuity amidst housing insecurity. 

The second paper, “The Hidden Costs of Formalization: Housing Affordability and Residential Mobility in Brazil’s Minha Casa Minha Vida Program”, turns attention to the Global South, investigating how formalization programs can paradoxically increase economic vulnerability for low-income homeowners. Using quasi-experimental methods and longitudinal administrative data, this study finds that while Brazil’s public housing initiative improved housing quality, it also introduced financial burdens that strain household budgets. This paper reveals the unintended consequences of housing policy and highlighting the importance of affordability, not just access, in assessing the success of housing programs.

The third paper, “How Does Housing Supply Impact Asian American Segregation?”, explores how suburban housing development patterns affect residential segregation for Asian American populations. Drawing on census data from 1980 to 2019, the study finds that both single-family and multi-family housing supply increase opportunities for Asian Americans to move into new neighborhoods, but that uneven regional distribution also reinforces segregation patterns. By highlighting the role of exclusionary planning processes as well as recent efforts to understand increases in housing supply, this paper extends the panel’s analysis of residential inequality into the realm of racialized urban planning, with implications for contemporary segregation beyond the Black-White binary.

Finally, “Moving Under Pressure: Household Shocks, Constraints, and Residential Im/mobility” introduces a nuanced framework for understanding both mobility and immobility in response to external shocks. Based on in-depth interviews with renters in Los Angeles, the paper reveals that not all families can afford to respond to mobility pressures, and that immobility can trap low-income renters in poor living conditions. This study broadens the panel's analytical scope by highlighting how both movement and stagnation reproduce inequality.

Together, these papers offer critical insights into the structural, economic, and housing policy-driven mechanisms that shape residential mobility and immobility, advancing our understanding of how housing can impact households in both local and global contexts.

Policy Area

• Housing, Community Development, and Urban Policy

Secondary Policy Area

• Social Equity and Race

Chair

• Carolina K Reid, University of California, Berkeley

Discussants

• Arthur Acolin, University of Washington

• Iris Zhang, Stanford University

Organizer

• Carolina K Reid, University of California, Berkeley

Individual Presentations

• Rental Property Sales and Housing Insecurity: Evidence from Linked Administrative Data in North Carolina - Presenting Author: Warren Robert Lowell, Vanderbilt University; Non-Presenting Co-Author: Anna Gassman-Pines, Duke University; Non-Presenting Co-Author: Marcos A Rangel

• The Hidden Costs of Formalization: Affordability and Mobility in Brazil’s Minha Casa Minha Vida Program - Presenting Author: Flavia Leite, University of California, Berkeley

• How Does Housing Supply Impact Asian American Segregation? - Presenting Author: Taesoo Song, University of California, Berkeley

• Moving Under Pressure: Household Shocks, Constraints, and Residential Im/mobility - Presenting Author: Steven Schmidt, Boston University