Racial Transition and Black Homeownership in American Suburbs

Abstract

Home ownership has traditionally served as an efficient wealth generating mechanism for the American middle class. Recent data indicating an increase in the metropolitan area black population living in the suburbs raise two questions: is black suburbanization equivalent to home ownership, and does black suburban homeownership lead to equity accumulation and the generation of wealth? These questions are addressed through analysis of a national sample of suburban housing units surveyed in 1974, and again in 1975, as part of the Census Bureau's Annual Housing Survey. As of the mid-1970s, black suburbanization has not been entirely synonymous with homeownership nor has homeownership automatically served the wealth generating function for blacks that it has provided for earlier suburbanizing aspirants to the middle class.