African-American Residential Relocation Decisions and The Multi-Generational Experience of Neighborhood Decline

• In Event: 452 - Section on Racial and Ethnic Minorities Refereed Roundtable Session and Business Meeting
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: Table 08. Race and Space

Abstract

In Stuck in Place, Patrick Sharkey explains how the multigenerational experience of neighborhood disadvantage has driven the persistent socioeconomic disadvantage of black families (2013). Racially segregated disadvantaged neighborhoods mediate a variety of social and economic goods in ways that perpetuate racial inequality (Lareau 2014; Sampson 2012; Sampson, Morenoff and Gannon-Rowley 2002; Small and Newman 2001; Stoll, Holzer and Ihlanfeldt 2000). However, geographic mobility does not necessarily bring relief from this place-based disadvantage (Basolo and Nguyen 2005). Using qualitative interviews with 66 middle-income African American aspiring homebuyers before they purchase a home and during their moving process, I argue that neighborhood disadvantage is an experience that follows African Americans through time and space despite concerted efforts to relocate to stable, solidly middle-class, integrated neighborhoods. In their attempt to locate stable neighborhoods suitable for purchasing a home, these median-income African American aspiring homebuyers develop their own theories of neighborhood change. The most pervasive of these theories that government-subsidized rental housing has caused decline in many neighborhoods. I found that aspiring homebuyers had two main strategies for finding an affordable and accessible community with a larger middle-class and white population: looking for gentrifying areas or moving to racially transitioning neighborhoods (i.e., areas that are transitioning from majority white to majority black). Both of these strategies demonstrate a high level of optimism around possibilities for racial integration and may lead to purchasing homes that will not appreciate well.

Author

• Nora E. Taplin-Kaguru, University of Chicago