Black Home-owners as a Gentrifying Force? Neighbourhood Dynamics in the Context of Minority Home-ownership

Abstract

A significant portion of the literature on gentrification has implied, if not explicitly described, a racial dynamic associated with the process whereby White households replace Black households as neighbourhood incomes rise. However, this racial dimension to gentrification rules out the possibility that the neighbourhood transitions that are a part of gentrification could be sparked by middle- and upper-income Black households. This paper re-examines this view of gentrification by establishing if Black home-owners were a gentrifying influence in US cities from 1970 to 1990. Based on findings from previous case studies, a new scoring technique for identifying gentrifying neighbourhoods is used. Evidence is found that Black home-owners were a gentrifying influence in the 1970s, but not in the 1980s. Changes in housing market racial dynamics during the period are a possible explanation for the divergent results.