The constraints on minority housing choices

This study uses a multivariate analysis to evaluate the housing and neighborhood characteristics that predict the residential choices made by non-Hispanic white, non-Hispanic black, Puerto Rican, and other Hispanic mover households in New York City from 1978 to 1987. This study evaluates minority housing choices in a multigroup context, rather than in a two-group context that implicitly assumes that minority groups compete for housing with only whites. After the influence of household characteristics is controlled, the results show that indicators of low-quality housing and poor neighborhood conditions significantly increase the likelihood that the household that moves in is a minority one, most likely Puerto Rican. Moreover, location in an area dominated by a particular minority group significantly increases the chance that the housing unit is occupied by a household belonging to that same group. By constraining minority housing choices, housing market segmentation effectively predetermines the types of housing units and neighborhoods that are available to different groups, and thus maintains racially and ethnically separate neighborhoods.