The Role of Race/Ethnicity in the Spatial Construction of Neighborhoods and Housing Choice

This dissertation examines how race/ethnicity impact the spatial construction of neighborhood and housing choice. I organize the dissertation into three essays that answer related methodological and empirical questions about segregation and racial concentration. The first essay presents a surname methodology to examine Asian ethnic group differences in individual-level data records. The second essay uses a surname method and models homeowner defaults and foreclosures to assess housing outcomes of middle-class coethnic neighborhoods. The third essay describes Latino and Asian homeowners who live in these neighborhoods and their experiences in the homebuying process and how it relates to socioeconomic mobility.These papers inform theories on American immigrant incorporation and their families’ outcomes. Housing literature describes racial segregation from a deficit perspective, highlighting the negative consequences of non-White neighborhoods. However, my research presents the housing benefits associated with middle-class immigrant and minority concentration. I find homeowners in Latino and Asian middle-class neighborhoods had lower predicted rates of default and foreclosure relative to low-income immigrant or minority neighborhoods. These neighborhoods also offer an alternative pathway for socioeconomic mobility. Latinos and Asians in coethnic neighborhoods described a preference for and greater access to using familial housing support, and found greater social mobility in non-White areas. In contrast, their counterparts in White neighborhoods had a preference for proximity to White neighbors and improved public amenities relative to their childhood neighborhood.My dissertation demonstrates how race shapes neighborhood choice and preference for or access to coethnic resources. Racial concentration does not always equate to declining housing and socioeconomic opportunities. The findings have implications for planners who are adjusting to changing demographics and different groups’ associated needs that may differ from the dominant group. The dissertation also provides nuances in methodology and framework to examine racial/ethnic group differences by income. This nuance is important because immigrants are bifurcated by income as a result of immigration policies that favor professionals and low- income workers—these differences are pronounced along and within ethnic groups