Remaking Metropolitan America? Residential Mobility and Racial Integration in the Suburbs

Abstract

This article provides estimates of white residential mobility within and between specific suburban places differentiated by ethnoracial diversity. The authors draw on intrametropolitan mobility data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics, linked to social and economic data measured at the metropolitan, place, and block levels. First, analyses show that the exodus of whites is significantly lower in predominantly white suburbs than in places with racially diverse populations. Most suburban whites have mostly white neighbors, a pattern reinforced by white residential mobility. Second, suburban whites who move tend to choose predominantly white communities with mostly white neighbors. Third, patterns of white intrametropolitan suburban mobility and minority avoidance are highly segmented. Affluent whites are seemingly better positioned to leave diversifying places for mostly white communities with white neighbors. White residential mobility, from more diverse to less diverse suburban places, builds on most previous studies emphasizing neighborhood-to-neighborhood mobility in metropolitan areas.