Black-White Appreciation of Owner-Occupied Homes in Upper Income Suburban Integrated Communities: The Cases of Maplewood and Montclair, New Jersey

Abstract

This paper examines black-white differences in housing appreciation in northern New Jersey, with particular emphasis on the communities of Montclair and Maplewood in the 1970 to 2000 period. The findings reveal that home appreciation at the block group level in these communities was inversely related to changes in the black population. The effect of changes in the proportion of the population that was black on home appreciation was similar to the effects of changes in black population at the census tract level in the northern New Jersey region as a whole. These high-income communities with award-winning school districts and well maintained housing stocks were not immune from the effects of race on home appreciation.