There are a lot of reasons that home prices tend to be lower in black neighborhoods than in white ones. Decades of racist policies put in place by governments and private companies — segregation, redlining, deed restrictions, exclusionary zoning, the deliberate hollowing out of urban cores — have had the net effect of eroding the quality of life in many majority-black neighborhoods nationwide.
As the authors of a new Brookings Institution-Gallup study note, Zillow data shows that the median listing price of a home in a majority-black neighborhood in a major metro area is around $184,000, while the median listing in a neighborhood where blacks make up less than 1 percent of the population stands at over $341,000.
But the authors — Andre M. Perry and David Harshbarger of Brookings and Jonathan Rothwell of Gallup — weren’t satisfied with that simple comparison based solely on neighborhood demographics. It’s too easy to explain that difference away with other factors, such as the structural characteristics of the buildings and access to good schools, good jobs and good stores….