Residential Immobility and Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Housing Quality

The research on residential mobility and residential displacement offers insight into racial and ethnic disparities in housing quality; however, scholars would benefit from contextualizing mobility and displacement within the overall housing picture. We expand the residential attainment framework by examining whether there are racial and ethnic differences in who makes residential moves and whether a higher immobility among Black and Hispanic households helps explain housing quality disparities. Using data from the Survey of Income and Program Participation, we find that Black and Hispanic households are more likely to be immobile than White and Asian households. Among the immobile population, Black and Hispanic households have higher probabilities of living in lower quality housing than White households. However, we find when Black households make residential moves, they translate those moves into housing quality that is on par with White households. Hence, we suggest that residential immobility offers a key explanation for persistent trends in racial and ethnic housing quality disparities. Paired with a declining trend in residential mobility, our findings may signal a greater phenomenon of marginalized households becoming increasingly stuck in place.