The Spatial Dynamics of Stratification: Metropolitan Context, Population Redistribution and Black and Hispanic Homeownership

Chenoa A. Flippen, University of Pennsylvania

Racial and ethnic inequality in homeownership remains wide, even net of variation in household sociod-emographic characteristics. This paper investigates the role of contextual forces in structuring disparate access to homeownership. Specifically, we combine household and metropolitan level census data to assess the impact of metropolitan housing stock, minority composition and residential segregation on black and Hispanic homeownership. The measure of minority composition combines both the size and growth of the co-ethnic population to assess the impact on homeownership inequality of recent trends in population redistribution, particularly the increase in black migration to the South and dispersal of Hispanics outside of traditional receiving areas. Results indicate remarkable similarity between blacks and Hispanics with respect to the spatial and contextual influences on homeownership. For both groups, homeownership is higher and inequality with whites smaller in metropolitan areas with an established co-ethnic base and those in which their group is less residentially segregated.