THE HOUSING LOCATION DECISIONS AND PREFERENCES OF MINORITY AND NON-MINORITY HOUSEHOLDS IN MONTGOMERY COUNTY, MARYLAND: IMPLICATIONS FOR RESIDENTIAL SEGREGATION BY RACE AND ETHNICITY

This study tests four hypotheses of housing segregation by race and ethnicity derived from residential location theory and studies of racial and ethnic housing segregation: differences in housing and neighborhood preferences between minorities and the majority white population, discrimination and white prejudice, self-segregation on the part of the minorities themselves, and economic disparities in purchasing power between minorities and the white majority. A total of 948 renters in seventy-seven different rental facilities in Montgomery County, Maryland, were interviewed between October, 1978, and February, 1979. Of the respondents, 466 were black, 163 were Hispanic, and 319 were white. The rental facilities in which respondents were interviewed ranged from exclusively white-occupied to all-black. The interview schedule, which contained 101 structured and open-ended items and was translated into Spanish, asked respondents how they searched for housing, the factors involved in their housing choices, their attitudes toward racial mixing in residential environments, and a variety of background and sociodemographic questions. Interviewers were matched to respondents on the basis of race, and Spanish-speaking interviewers were deployed to Hispanic households. Residential segregation by race and ethnicity, to the extent that it exists in Montgomery County, was found to be due to a combination of the explanations cited above. Although the self-segregation hypothesis was not confirmed, differences between blacks and whites in their profile of preferences for racial mixing in residential environments emerged as a contributing factor in the persistence of racially identifiable rental complexes in the County. High percentages of whites expressed a willingness to live in rental complexes which are up to half-black, but very few were willing to live in complexes more than 50 percent black. In contrast, blacks generally felt comfortable with housing environments ranging from about one-third to two-thirds black, with the modal preference being a half-black and half-white context. Smaller proportions of blacks expressed willingness to live in all-black or all-white contexts. Socioeconomic, demographic, and life cycle differences between minorities and whites were found to play a considerable role in housing segregation by race and ethnicity. Blacks and Hispanics--especially those residing in moderately to heavily black rental complexes--had larger households, more children, and lower per capita incomes, on the average, than whites; and both blacks and Hispanics--again, especially those with lower incomes--stressed that a location convenient to public transportation was important to them. In regard to discrimination, close to half the black respondents said they felt they might have difficulty in renting in certain areas of the County or in particular rental complexes, though relatively few cited specific locations or complexes when asked. Compared with blacks and whites, Hispanics were more likely to have known someone in the rental complex and/or the neighborhood into which they moved, suggesting a tendency toward residential clustering on the part of this largely immigrant and Spanish-speaking group. For all three groups, racial aspects of housing and neighborhood were found to be of much lesser importance in housing location decisions than other aspects of housing--most notably cost factors, the upkeep and maintenance of the rental complex, and a convenient location. Responses to open-ended questions revealed an overriding concern with the issue of rising housing costs in Montgomery County and apprehension about condominium conversions and continued escalating costs for housing in the years to come.