Housing Tenure Differences in Racial and Ethnic Residential Segregation

Samantha Friedman, University at Albany, State University of New York (SUNY)
Nancy A. Denton, University at Albany, State University of New York (SUNY)
Cheng Chen, University at Albany, State University of New York (SUNY)

Homeownership is one of the primary ways through which families accumulate wealth, particularly for blacks and Hispanics. But recent trends suggest that minority homeownership itself may not be as helpful to minorities in their accrual of wealth as it is for whites. Minority homeowners are likely to be highly segregated from their white counterparts. Surprisingly, however, little is known about how housing tenure shapes racial and ethnic residential segregation. The primary goal of this study is to document the segregation of minority and white homeowners and renters across metropolitan America using data from Census 2000. Preliminary results here suggest that housing tenure is an important dimension of socioeconomic status to examine as it relates to residential segregation and that race/ethnicity appears to interact with housing tenure in shaping racial and ethnic segregation. Blacks appear to be the minority group with the highest levels of segregation from white owners and renters.