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Although I grew up on the fringes of Appalachia, I've spent my entire adult life - the past 20 years or so - in Houston. I bought a house in a working-class neighborhood a little more than a decade ago. The neighborhood (subdivision) had some diversity back then, and over the last 10 years it's increased much, and probably now has a majority Hispanic population with a significant African-American presence. Home values kept ticking upwards. No one dumped their house. It's still considered a good 'starter home' subdivision. It has always been a pleasant, safe place to live and it still is.
I'm aware of white flight. I've always thought it was something that occurred back in the 1970s - maybe extending into the 1980s - and it has been pretty much non-existent since then. Now I'm in the process of purchasing a home in an inner-ring suburb of another city. The house is an incredible deal - totally livable, about the same shape as the house I bought in Houston, in a decent, low-crime neighborhood - and less than $30K. After crunching some numbers, I figured out that the values in this particular neighborhood have fallen something like 25% in the past 10 years, despite the city overall having a relatively good economy.
So I'm getting the home inspection done, and a neighbor - white guy in his late fifties - starts talking to me. He starts moaning and groaning about how the neighborhood has gone downhill. He's going to put his house on the market. And he's not going to get anything for it. Then he said something that I hadn't heard in years - 'and it's all because those blacks are moving in.'
So, apparently, the house I'm buying is being dumped (for half the cost they purchased it for in 2000) because of white flight. Is this as stupid and anachronistic as I think it is or have I been living in some kind of isolated bubble in Houston? Does white flight still exist in other cities, or is this city I'm moving to an anomaly?
I think the question which needs to be answered in order to answer yours is
"How much White Flight can still happen in 2010?"
Some cities may have undergone such dramatic White Flight back in the 70s and 80s that it leaves very few in the actual city to leave.
I think in cities which have a larger land area like Houston may have White Flight from neighborhoods like you mentioned where people can move to another part of the city and still be within the city limits. Detroit is probably the best example of a city which experienced White Flight. Detroit is only 143 square miles as a city whereas Houston is roughly 600 square miles. That provides several more opportunities for White Flight to occur within the city where individuals can move from neighbors and still be in the city, not the suburban municipalities, that way it may not affect the demographic breakdown of the actual city. Which may be true for all sunbelt cities since they tend to be geographically much larger than cities in the North.
I think in cities which have a larger land area like Houston may have White Flight from neighborhoods like you mentioned where people can move to another part of the city and still be within the city limits.
I'm talking about neighborhoods, not entire cities. In 20 years of living in Houston, I've never seen people leave a neighborhood, with the corresponding drop in home values, because of race, or even ethnicity. I've actually seen the opposite, African-American communities totally obliterated by gentrification (Freedman's Town).
In the particular neighborhood I'm moving to - a different city, 1500 miles away - people are dumping houses for ridiculous prices because of racial elements. It just seems so odd, but from your post I gather it's the norm in a large part of the US.
I think the question which needs to be answered in order to answer yours is
"How much White Flight can still happen in 2010?"
Some cities may have undergone such dramatic White Flight back in the 70s and 80s that it leaves very few in the actual city to leave.
I think in cities which have a larger land area like Houston may have White Flight from neighborhoods like you mentioned where people can move to another part of the city and still be within the city limits. Detroit is probably the best example of a city which experienced White Flight. Detroit is only 143 square miles as a city whereas Houston is roughly 600 square miles. That provides several more opportunities for White Flight to occur within the city where individuals can move from neighbors and still be in the city, not the suburban municipalities, that way it may not affect the demographic breakdown of the actual city. Which may be true for all sunbelt cities since they tend to be geographically much larger than cities in the North.
Even if Chicago, Philadelphia and Detroit where combined they would still be have less land area than Houston!
Also, the dynamics of racial housing patterns are different in the South too. Blacks live throughout the metros in the South and generally have for a long time, whereas in the North, it might be certain areas of concentration of Blacks or other minority groups in a metro.
Then, you have the issue of gentrification, in which affluent people that are generally White, are moving back into cities. So, some cities might actually see the opposite, with minority groups being forced to suburban areas.
We are in the midst of a big flip in this country between the cities in the suburbs. Younger people prefer to live in an urban environment, so the cities are being gentrified. Poor people are leaving the cities for the decaying suburbs full of dilapidated foreclosures, empty strip malls and boarded up gas stations.
People fled cities during the crack epidemic, but with the homicide numbers coming down 20 years later, cities are starting to regain their appeal. Convenience, culture, public transit, parks, fountains, clubs, dives, bars, eateries, stuff to do, etc...
We are in the midst of a big flip in this country between the cities in the suburbs. Younger people prefer to live in an urban environment, so the cities are being gentrified. Poor people are leaving the cities for the decaying suburbs full of dilapidated foreclosures, empty strip malls and boarded up gas stations.
People fled cities during the crack epidemic, but with the homicide numbers coming down 20 years later, cities are starting to regain their appeal. Convenience, culture, public transit, parks, fountains, clubs, dives, bars, eateries, stuff to do, etc...
Hmm, I wonder if we'll see a new kind of donut develop? The exurbs continue to be developed for those people who hang on to the idea that you need a half-acre of grass and a car to be happy. Cities revitalize. And the inner suburbs develop into a ring of poverty.
We are in the midst of a big flip in this country between the cities in the suburbs. Younger people prefer to live in an urban environment, so the cities are being gentrified. Poor people are leaving the cities for the decaying suburbs full of dilapidated foreclosures, empty strip malls and boarded up gas stations.
I wasn't referring to those post-WWII suburbs. This suburb was one of the street-car suburbs - dense and walkable, with easy transit connections and 15 minutes to downtown. The kind of suburb like the Heights in Houston, where people actually pay a premium to live, but with much more convenient mass transit.
Maybe I should just stop fretting about this. The neighborhood has low crime, it's in a good location, I like the house and it's less than the price of my other half's Accord. If people are being stupid and dumping their homes for half their value, I should take advantage of their ignorance. If it depreciates, so what; I don't expect the car to appreciate.
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