Call number: LD2668 .T4 1979 M27 / Master of Regional and Community Planning

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Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 2007. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 212-224).

Although this study will be concerned primarily with the Negro and legal issues involved in efforts to discriminate against the Negro race, a careful study of racial residential segregation will reveal that the imposed restrictions may be based on religion, nationality, or race.

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This study investigates black-white status inequality as an explication of central city residential segregation interregionally in 1960 and 1970. Using the popular index of dissimilarity (delta) to quantify educational, occupational and income inequality, it was found that the South was more unequal than the North, but much less so in 1970. Moreover, the level of Southern inequality was more the product of white advantage and the level of Northern inequality results more from significant black disadvantage than is commonly thought. While inequality in both the North and South varies greatly among cities, the sources of inequality were not stable over time nor across regions, as status dissimilarity was more a high status event in the North and in 1970. Since delta, as a nominal measure, is insensitive to such divergent sources of inequality, it was discounted for comparative research. Gini, an ordinal statistic, was also found inadequate in detecting these changes in what status inequality means. Therefore, a interval/ratio index, tridelta, was constructed for accurate interregional and cross time contrasts of status inequality. Furthermore, it was shown that delta measures racial differences as inequality, gini detects degrees of absolute deprivation and tridelta is a quantification of relative deprivation. Using status to explain residential segregation since 1940, showed that status is a weak, but increasingly important, determinant of the nation's cities' levels of segregation. Surprisingly, the North showed less status influence on segregation and closer congruence to 1940 and 1950 levels of segregation than did the South in 1960 and 1970, despite index employed. Occupational dissimilarity, not deprivation, was important in explaining segregation. In contrast, educational and to a lesser extent, income deprivation (relative in the South and absolute in the North) was important, although in the North, education's effect was unexplainedly inverse. Since the South was found to have a more egalitarian housing market, it was suggested that perhaps black status gains have been more visible in the South and that "the American dilemma" may be more salient there. Whatever, the South approaches parity with the North.

Residential racial segregation has been perennially viewed as a major urban problem in the United States. Meanwhile, the single-family mortgage market has been an influential factor in determining segregation since at least the 1930s. Although many prior studies rightly have focused on the very real individual and social costs of subprime loans and related loan features, the greater leverage they afford also may have allowed some, especially minority, homebuyers to purchase properties they otherwise would not have been able to afford. Limited loan-to-value and payment-to-income ratio requirements have constrained borrowers from prime, conventional lenders, and relaxing these standards might allow some borrowers to purchase more expensive homes, possibly in higher quality neighborhoods. Additionally, if minority borrowers disproportionately obtained high-leverage loans, the effect of these loans on neighborhood choice may be greater for minorities than non-Hispanic whites. Since higher-quality neighborhoods are disproportionately non-Hispanic white or racially diverse, the increase in high-leverage mortgages might mitigate the neighborhood quality gap between minorities and non-Hispanic whites and reduce levels of racial/ethnic segregation. Accordingly, this dissertation focuses on two research questions: 1) whether high-leverage home purchase loans enabled borrowers to purchase more expensive homes and homes in higher-quality neighborhoods; and 2) whether these loans affected the racial/ethnic segregation of homebuyers at the metropolitan level. Since blacks and Hispanics comprise significant minorities in many metropolitan areas in the 2000s, I examine the questions for three racial/ethnic groups: non-Hispanics whites, blacks, and Hispanics. To answer the first question, household housing demand and neighborhood quality models are estimated using the American Housing Survey data. To answer the second question, metropolitan area segregation models are estimated primarily using the American Community Survey and the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act. Both cross-sectional and fixed-effect panel segregation models are estimated using a two-stage least squares approach with chosen instruments. I find that the use of high-leverage loans increases housing demand and neighborhood quality, holding other household characteristics constant. I also find that high-leverage loans have a substantial, negative effect on black segregation, while the effect on Hispanic segregation is somewhat ambiguous. The findings suggest that policymakers should consider the impact of regulations affecting allowable loan-to-value and payment-to-income ratios on borrowers' residential choice and urban form, as well as on default risk.