This study extends the intercity rent differentials investigation by Gilderbloom and Appelbaum (1988) in relatively independent housing markets to see how it can be replicated using U.S. census data from the year 2000 against the 1970 and 1980 models with the addition of several new variables to measure its impact on intercity rents. We find that region, race, and climate no longer explain rent differentials in 2000 as it did in the 1980 research, while affirming that a large percentage of old houses and small mom-and-pop landlords causes rents to fall. We find that both the cost of homeownership and the level of household income remain critical factors in explaining the level of median rent across cities. We also find a strong correlation between cities with extensive anti-war activity in the late 1960s and same sex households having higher rents, although more research needs to be done before we argue a causal relationship. We contend that sociology needs to be put back into the equation in order to understand how rents vary from city to city. Our explanation of rent variations adds a social dimension that most other researches miss. We also show how the amount of explanatory power is increased significantly by adding in a sociological dimension.The factors that determine median rent levels across cities have been a topic of much debate and intense research in the literature on urban housing markets and urban public policy.
Foreclosures have become one of the most important problems facing cities and the U.S. economy. However, not all communities are affected equally. Our goal is to better understand factors that affect variation in neighborhood foreclosures in a typical, mid‐sized U.S. city—Louisville, Kentucky. While previous findings indicate that a key explanatory variable leading to rising neighborhood foreclosures is the proportion of racial minorities, our analysis finds that in a fully specified model, race does not predict differences between black and white homeowners. On the other hand, an analysis of investors predicts high foreclosure rates in African‐American neighborhoods. The effect of percent nonwhite is caused by several key intervening variables, including the presence of investor foreclosures, the absence of neighborhood walkability, and the prevalence of high‐cost loans. In the past, walkability and investor behavior have largely been ignored by social scientists studying neighborhood variation in foreclosures and the role of race in rising foreclosures. In this article, we examine how speculation by investors in majority African‐American neighborhoods along with degree of walkability and the concentration of high‐priced loans have contributed to recent increases in foreclosures and variation across neighborhoods. Together, the findings demonstrate that these three factors help to better explain the contemporary causes of greater foreclosures in African‐American neighborhoods.
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