Quote:
Originally Posted by suburbanite
What's stopping a household with full replacement value income (who presumably hold little mortgage debt) from moving into the next tier of neighbourhoods with better schools and safety?
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Racism and redlining, historically. Blacks were unwelcome in most suburbs, and especially the ones with the highest housing appreciation. The places where they were most welcome (places like Southfield and Oak Park) had the same white flight and resulting stagnant housing values.
Even today, while there are AAs scattered about in wealthier suburbs, the same stagnation cycle repeats where they're most concentrated (see West Bloomfield, a rich suburb with flat home values and some initial white flight).
Look at the change in demographics at West Bloomfield High. Again, this is an affluent area, almost all professionals, lots of country clubs, lakeside million dollar homes. As the black population grows, home values stagnate:
https://www.schooldigger.com/go/MI/s...81/school.aspx
And the suburbs with the fastest home prices appreciation are almost entirely white. Just a few miles from West Bloomfield, my sister lives in a neighborhood where property values have doubled in recent years, and her neighborhood has racial-religious covenants (illegal for 50 years, and unenforceable, but still has a rep. as being hostile to everyone but WASPs).
Her neighborhood is basically entirely WASP and Catholic. If a black family moved in, there would be no hostility (it's politically moderate and cosmopolitan for Michigan standards) but people generally don't want to live where they aren't welcomed.