The Increasing Effect of Neighborhood Racial Composition on Housing Values, 1980–2015

Beginning in the 1930s, neighborhood racial composition was an explicit determining factor in the evaluation of U.S. home values. This deliberate practice was outlawed in the 1960s and 1970s, but the correlation between neighborhood racial composition and home values persists. Using Census Bureau data from 1980 to 2015, the present study investigates the changing relationship between neighborhood racial composition and home appraisals, as well as the mechanisms that drive it. Contrary to what is often presumed, neighborhood racial composition was a stronger determinant of appraised values in 2015 than it was in 1980. Results suggest this is primarily due to contemporary appraising practices. Specifically, the use of the sales comparison approach has allowed historical racialized appraisals to influence contemporary values and appraisers’ racialized assumptions about neighborhoods to drive appraisal methods. These findings provide strong evidence that persistent racial inequality is driven in part by perpetual devaluing of communities of color and they suggest further regulation is required to foster equity.

“Because the World Consists of Everybody”: Understanding Parents’ Preferences for Neighborhood Diversity

Previous research, primarily using survey data, highlights preferences about neighborhood racial composition as a potential contributor to residential segregation. However, we know little about how individuals, especially parents, understand neighborhood racial composition. We examine this question using in–depth interview data from a racially diverse sample of 156 parents of young children in two metropolitan areas. Prior scholarship on neighborhood racial preferences has mostly been animated by expectations about in–group attraction, out–group avoidance, the influence of stereotypes, and perceived associations between race and status. However, we find that a substantial subset of parents expressed a desire for racially and ethnically mixed neighborhoods—a residential preference at odds with racial segregation. Parents across race conceptualized neighborhood diversity as beneficial for children's development. They expressed shared logics, reasoning that neighborhood diversity cultivates skills and comfort interacting with racial others; teaches tolerance; and provides cultural enrichment. However, these ideas intersected with racial segregation and stratification to shape parents’ understandings of diversity and hinder the realization of parents’ aspirations. Beliefs about the benefits of neighborhood diversity were rarely a primary motivation for residential choices. Nonetheless, parents’ perceptions of the advantages of neighborhood racial mixing reveal the reach of discourse on the value of diversity and suggest a potential opportunity to advance residential desegregation.