Spatial Differentials in Residential Displacement

Abstract

Because existing research treats residential displacement as a consequence of housing market conditions associated with the urban core, the incidence of displacement is thought to be greater in: (1) metropolitan areas than nonmetropolitan areas, (2) the 'urban heartland' than other regions of the country, (3) central cities than suburbs, and (4) older, inner-city neighborhoods than younger, peripheral ones. Data from the US Annual Housing Survey are analyzed and case studies of individual cities are reviewed to test these four spatial hypotheses. While the strength of the evidence favoring the hypotheses depends in part upon the type of displacement rate employed, spatial contrasts in displacement generally appear to be less marked than the literature suggests. We attribute the lack of convincing support for the hypotheses to housing market pressures operating at the national level that generate involuntary mobility across all geographical sectors of the population.

The Consequences of Gentrification for Racial Change in Washington, DC

“…Higher rates of out-migration among low-income households could be linked to gentrification-induced displacement, but such households could be exiting their dwellings for other reasons. The second approach attempts to ameliorate the disadvantages of migration studies by using data-sets that have information on the motives of out-movers (Lee & Hodge, 1984;Newman & Wyly, 2006;Schill & Nathan, 1983). Researchers generally consider residents to have experienced displacement if they moved because of housing costs or landlord harassment or were displaced by private action.…”

“…Many data-sets with information on why residents moved do not allow researchers to separate the kinds of involuntary moves associated with gentrification from moves that are unrelated. For example, Lee and Hodge's (1984) analysis of the American Housing Survey defined displacement as those who were displaced by private action, which includes moves due to abandonment, demolition, and mortgage default. Another challenge is that some of the surveys that ask respondents why they moved are at a level of geographic aggregation that is larger than traditional neighborhood boundaries.…”

Gentrification and Segregated Wealth in Rural America: Home Value Sorting in Destination Counties

“…Direct displacement occurs when renters are evicted from their homes. Indirect displacement results from more nebulous pressures on households to relocate (Lee and Hodge 1984), such as climbing property taxes, costs of living, or rents. Even in early reflections upon these forces in modern cities, Hawley (1971) identified dispersal from workplaces, dissolution of small businesses, and high housing and transportation costs as shared consequences of displacement that take a particularly hard toll on the poor.…”

Local perspectives on rural housing affordability and implications for the localism agenda in England

“…However, more detailed analysis of this process suggests a more complex set of conditions under which residential change in neighbourhoods (and villages) is triggered, grounded in social as well as economic drivers. Economically, displacement expresses a state of disequilibrium between property supply and demand (Sumka, 1979;Lee and Hodge, 1984), narrowing market opportunity. It is all about economic competitiveness.…”