Panel:
Race and Real Estate after the Recovery: Contemporary Dynamics of Housing Segregation & Integration
(Housing, Community Development, and Urban Policy)
*Names in bold indicate Presenter
It has been over a decade since the US housing bubble bust and the foreclosure crisis began to reshape neighborhoods across the US. The important racial aspects of the bubble and crisis have been thoroughly analyzed, but the more recent changes in the geography of race and housing tenure, and their impact on neighborhoods, are less well understood. This panel explores both homeownership and rental housing markets, particularly how the race of buyers and the racial character of neighborhoods matter. The first paper looks at changes in the spatial preferences of African-American homebuyers from the height of the housing bubble to the present, and their implications for neighborhood stability and change. The second paper explores the geography of eviction, particularly its connection to residential segregation. The third paper examines the investors in single-family rental properties, focusing especially on differences in rent-setting between professional investors and “mom and pop” landlords and whether rent-setting varies with the racial composition of the neighborhood. Collectively the papers contribute to scholarship on how changes in patterns of segregation and integration are unfolding today; their significance for homeowners, tenants, and the neighborhoods and larger communities in which they live; and their implications for urban public policy. The mix of traditional and novel data sources used in the panel also raises important questions around what additional data are needed to fully address critical issues involving both the rental and owner-occupied housing markets in the US.
