Mobility, Residential Location and the American Dream

This article applies data from Washington, DC, Chicago and Los Angeles to
estimate three-level nested multinomial logit models of household mobility, resi-
dential location and homeownership tenure choice. Model simulation indicates
that shocks to income can significantly elevate the homeownership attainment
of minority households; however, their urban settlement and homeownership
patterns remain substantially more concentrated than those of whites. Simu-
lated equilibration of black economic status with that of whites results in an
approximate doubling of homeownership rates among black movers to central
city areas. In contrast, homeownership rates among black movers to suburban
and outlying areas lag far behind those of whites.

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