Race-conscious homeownership remedies fail when white flight depresses resale values

Evidence

Consider Richard Rothstein’s proposal to address the historical government discrimination that prevented black Americans from buying homes in Levittown, New York: He suggests that the government purchase the next 15 percent of homes for sale in Levittown and sell them to black Americans at a reduced price in order to provide them with instant homeownership wealth. … Though a laudable effort, it fails to consider one key neighborhood attribute: white homeowners in Levittown live with a less than 1 percent black population, and they must be comfortable living with very few black neighbors—or they would live elsewhere. Rothstein’s proposal, which would bring more black neighbors in Levittown, would likely make it much less appealing to current and prospective white homeowners. Existing Levittown homeowners would put their homes on the market, and as the percentage of black homeowners increased, their home values would fall further. When the dust settled, black homeowners who purchased homes at reduced prices in order to get “instant” wealth would have much less of it because “too many” black homeowners moved in. Rothstein’s proposal ignores twenty-first-century systemic racism operating through the private decision-making of white homebuyers. — Dorothy A. Brown, The Whiteness of Wealth, 483

Categorization

• XREF: Reinforces the book’s earlier argument that white home purchase preferences dominate housing markets and eliminate black opportunity, and connects to Rothstein’s The Color of Law’s thesis. — connects to: Housing-market discrimination makes purportedly free market choices illusory — Luke W. Cole and Sheila R. Foster, From the Ground Up: Environmental…, 317; Market-dynamics siting outcomes remain racist once housing discrimination is factored in — Luke W. Cole and Sheila R. Foster, From the Ground Up: Environmental…, 336; White flight accelerated when working-class whites bore busing costs the affluent escaped. — Matthew D. Lassiter, The Suburban Origins of “Color-Blind”…, 101 (+2 more)
• SEED: Essay angle: reparations-style in-kind wealth transfers (homes) fail because the intended asset’s value depends on the very market preferences that harmed black families originally.