Residential Segregation, Housing Submarkets, and Spatial Analysis: St. Louis and Cincinnati as a Case Study

Abstract

This article considers how spatial analysis of housing submarkets can advance research into residential segregation. While an emphasis on housing submarkets has been proposed as a new construct for modeling housing prices, its use in analyzing residential segregation has been limited. Recent advances in spatial analysis and geographic information systems present new opportunities for researchers to exploit the potential of housing submarkets as constructs that offer a more precise way to examine residential segregation. The article synthesizes literature related to residential segregation and housing submarkets and demonstrates how to delineate housing submarkets using publicly available data. It examines the spatial distribution of housing submarkets and how the socially disadvantaged are represented across housing submarkets in St. Louis, Missouri, and Cincinnati, Ohio, to conclude that St. Louis's housing market is more polarized and racially segregated than Cincinnati's. Spatial analysis of housing submarkets, in conjunction with archival analysis, provides a promising avenue for identifying residential segregation as a multidimensional phenomenon, and a means to explore local processes of urban inequality.

Keywords::

• residential segregation
• housing submarkets
• geographic information systems
• spatial analysis
• urban inequality

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Sungsoon Hwang

Sungsoon Hwang is an associate professor of geography at DePaul University. She received her BA in geographic education from the Seoul National University (South Korea), her MSc in geographic information systems (GIS) from the University of Nottingham (UK), and her PhD in geography from the State University of New York at Buffalo. Her research areas include spatial analysis of housing markets, residential segregation, GIS for sustainability education, and spatial data mining. She teaches courses on GIS and sustainable urban development.