Residential Mortgage Foreclosure and Racial Transition in New Orleans

Abstract

In this article, the authors explore residential mortgage foreclosure as a mechanism that links economic shocks and the process of racial transition (Lauria 1998). Their analysis indicates that housing foreclosures added momentum to an ongoing process of racial transition, net of the effects of exogenous economic shocks and such other variables as median income of residents, change in the value of owner-occupied housing, and the existing racial distribution of population. Foreclosure appears to have the strongest effect on racial transition in block groups where resident incomes are above the lowest levels and there is a preexisting and increasing black population.