The Increasing Effect of Neighborhood Racial Composition on Housing Values across the U.S., 1990-2010

• In Event: 1164 - Homeownership and the Reproduction of Inequality

Abstract

Beginning in the 1930s, neighborhood racial composition was an explicit determining factor in the evaluation of U.S. home values. Although this deliberate practice was outlawed in the 1960s and 1970s, recent research on specific metropolitan areas has demonstrated that the correlation between appraisal values and neighborhood racial composition continues. Using the 1990 and 2000 Decennial Censuses as well as the 2008-2012 American Community Survey, the present study spans outward and examines to what extent this relationship persists across the United States, whether this relationship is waning or increasing in recent decades, and the metropolitan level factors that exacerbate it. Results suggest that, on average, U.S. housing values are still shaped by neighborhood racial composition and the strength of this relationship is increasing, not waning, over time. Additionally, metropolitan areas with increasing White Segregation and decreasing poverty experience the strongest correlations between home values and neighborhood racial composition. These findings provide strong evidence of persistent racial inequality in housing across the United States and suggest further regulation is required to foster equity in home appraisals.

Authors

• Junia Howell, University of Pittsburgh

• Elizabeth Korver-Glenn, University of New Mexico