Foreclosed Homes, Foreclosed Neighborhoods? Segregation as a Function of Metropolitan Foreclosure Rates

• In Event: 095 - Section on Community and Urban Roundtables (one-hour)
  In Refereed Roundtable: Table 04. Residential Segregation

Abstract

The recent foreclosure crisis was unquestionably one of the most significant events of the twenty-first century; however, its consequences remain largely unknown. Building on findings that rates of foreclosure during the crisis varied, in part, as a function of residential segregation (Rugh and Massey 2010), I ask whether changes in metropolitan-level racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic segregation in the wake of the crisis varied as a function of rates of foreclosure during the crisis. I apply a risk contexts perspective to this question, arguing that the relationship between segregation and foreclosure cannot be understood without first uncovering and controlling for the multiple overlapping structural determinants that mutually constitute both. Further, borrowing from theory in the sociology of disasters, I additionally ask whether the foreclosure crisis constituted a trajectory-altering exogenous shock to the gradual, ongoing process of segregation. Leveraging a dataset constructed from multiple data sources, preliminary results of OLS regression modeling demonstrate that rates of foreclosure during the crisis are associated with widespread decreases in segregation, measured using both the dissimilarity and exposure indices. Hispanics and the poor represent notable exceptions, for whom segregation remained unchanged. I conclude by discussing the implications of these findings, as well as highlighting directions for future work on this project and on this topic more generally.

Author

• Lora A. Phillips Lassus, The Ohio State University