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Race and Home Ownership: A Century-Long View

Author

Listed:
  • William J.Collins

    (Department of Economics, Vanderbilt University)

  • Robert A. Margo

    (Department of Economics, Vanderbilt University)

Abstract

This paper uses census IPUMS data to analyze trends in racial differences in home ownership and housing values and to examine the connection between residential segregation and the housing status of blacks relative to whites. A widening in the ownership gap between 1940 and 1960 is explained largely by the increasing concentration of blacks in central city areas whereas a narrowing in the ownership gap between 1960 and 1980 is explained only by changes in the relative characteristics of the black and white populations. Residential segregation did not widen the racial gap in home ownership rates in 1940 or 1980, but did widen the gap in housing values after 1940.

Suggested Citation

  • William J.Collins & Robert A. Margo, 2000. "Race and Home Ownership: A Century-Long View," Vanderbilt University Department of Economics Working Papers 0012, Vanderbilt University Department of Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:van:wpaper:0012
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Jacob L. Vigdor, 2004. "Liquidity Constraints and Housing Prices: Theory and Evidence from the VA Mortgage," NBER Working Papers 10611, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    2. Coulson, N. Edward & Dalton, Maurice, 2010. "Temporal and ethnic decompositions of homeownership rates: Synthetic cohorts across five censuses," Journal of Housing Economics, Elsevier, vol. 19(3), pages 155-166, September.
    3. Leah Platt Boustan & Robert A. Margo, 2011. "White Suburbanization and African-American Home Ownership, 1940-1980," NBER Working Papers 16702, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    4. Nobuhiro Kiyotaki & Alexander Michaelides & Kalin Nikolov, 2011. "Winners and Losers in Housing Markets," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 43, pages 255-296, March.
    5. Stephen L. Ross, 2008. "Understanding Racial Segregation: What is known about the Effect of Housing Discrimination," Working papers 2008-15, University of Connecticut, Department of Economics, revised Nov 2008.
    6. Canaday, Neil, 2008. "The accumulation of property by southern blacks and whites: Individual-level evidence from a South Carolina cotton county, 1910-1919," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 45(1), pages 51-75, January.
    7. William J. Collins & Robert A. Margo, 2001. "Race and Home Ownership in Twentieth Century America: The Role of Sample Composition," Vanderbilt University Department of Economics Working Papers 0110, Vanderbilt University Department of Economics.
    8. Werner Troesken & Randall Walsh, 2017. "Collective Action, White Flight, and the Origins of Formal Segregation Laws," NBER Working Papers 23691, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    9. Tamura, Robert & Simon, Curtis & Murphy, Kevin M., 2012. "Black and White Fertility, Differential Baby Booms: The Value of Civil Rights," MPRA Paper 40921, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    10. Collins, William J. & Margo, Robert A., 2003. "Race and the value of owner-occupied housing, 1940-1990," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 33(3), pages 255-286, May.
    11. Daniel K. Fetter, 2013. "How Do Mortgage Subsidies Affect Home Ownership? Evidence from the Mid-century GI Bills," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 5(2), pages 111-147, May.
    12. Laurent Gobillon & Matthieu Solignac, 2014. "Homeownership of immigrants in France," ERSA conference papers ersa14p558, European Regional Science Association.
    13. Jepsen, Christopher & Jepsen, Lisa K., 2009. "Does home ownership vary by sexual orientation?," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 39(3), pages 307-315, May.
    14. White, T. Kirk, 2007. "Initial conditions at Emancipation: The long-run effect on black-white wealth and earnings inequality," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 31(10), pages 3370-3395, October.
    15. Collins, William J., 2004. "The housing market impact of state-level anti-discrimination laws, 1960-1970," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 55(3), pages 534-564, May.
    16. Ghent, Andra C. & Hernández-Murillo, Rubén & Owyang, Michael T., 2014. "Differences in subprime loan pricing across races and neighborhoods," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 199-215.
    17. Tymon Słoczyński, 2020. "Average Gaps and Oaxaca–Blinder Decompositions: A Cautionary Tale about Regression Estimates of Racial Differences in Labor Market Outcomes," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 73(3), pages 705-729, May.
    18. Daniel K. Fetter, 2014. "The Twentieth-Century Increase in U.S. Home Ownership: Facts and Hypotheses," NBER Chapters, in: Housing and Mortgage Markets in Historical Perspective, pages 329-350, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    19. Vigdor, Jacob L., 2006. "Liquidity constraints and housing prices: Theory and evidence from the VA Mortgage Program," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 90(8-9), pages 1579-1600, September.
    20. Melinda C. Miller, 2020. "“The Righteous and Reasonable Ambition to Become a Landholder”: Land and Racial Inequality in the Postbellum South," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 102(2), pages 381-394, May.
    21. Fesselmeyer, Eric & Le, Kien T. & Seah, Kiat Ying, 2012. "A household-level decomposition of the white–black homeownership gap," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 42(1-2), pages 52-62.
    22. William J. Collins, 2003. "The Housing Market Impact of State-Level Anti-Discrimination Laws, 1960-970," NBER Working Papers 9562, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    23. Kiat Ying Seah & Eric Fesselmeyer & Kien Le, 2017. "Estimating and decomposing changes in the White–Black homeownership gap from 2005 to 2011," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 54(1), pages 119-136, January.
    24. Kalin Nikolov & Alex Michaelides & Nobuhiro Kiyotaki, 2007. "From Shirtsleeves to Shirtsleeves in a Long Lifetime," 2007 Meeting Papers 357, Society for Economic Dynamics.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Discrimination; property value; segregation;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J15 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Minorities, Races, Indigenous Peoples, and Immigrants; Non-labor Discrimination
    • N92 - Economic History - - Regional and Urban History - - - U.S.; Canada: 1913-
    • R20 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - Household Analysis - - - General

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    1. Historical Economic Geography

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