Mixed-income Neighborhoods’ Advantage in the Context of Mortgage Foreclosures

• In Event: 031 - Section on Community and Urban Sociology Paper Session. Housing

Abstract

The scholarly attention to mixed-income neighborhoods has come predominantly from studying the effects of federally funded housing policies, such as Empowerment Zone/Enterprise Community programs and the HOPE VI Urban Demonstration program, which was replaced by Choice Neighborhoods program (HUD, 2011). These programs, and much housing policy discourse, operate on the assumption that residential economic integration is beneficial to lower income residents. We believe that it is important to learn more about the already existing mixed-income neighborhoods, for which empirical evidence is lacking. We address two research questions: Do mixed-income neighborhoods create a beneficial context for the residents? Have mixed-income neighborhoods fared better during the mortgage foreclosure crisis, compared to the other communities? Our findings suggest that on average, the residents of mixed-income neighborhoods have experienced lower levels of subprime loans and foreclosed properties. In addition, controlling for the most important neighborhood characteristics, we find that mixed-income neighborhoods are less likely to be found among the most affected by foreclosure communities.

Authors

• Elena Vesselinov, City University of New York-Queens College

• Mary Clare Lennon, City University of New York-Graduate Center