REPEAT HOMEBUYERS AND AMERICAN URBAN STRUCTURE

Abstract

Housing and homeownership play a variety of roles in the United States. This paper explores the literature on American housing, residential mobility, urban development, jurisdictional fragmentation, urban decline, and spatial polarization in order to examine linkages among those aspects of American life. The paper also acts as an introduction to the context surrounding seven metropolitan areas that are the focus of this special issue of Urban Geography. The seven include Akron, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Columbus, Dayton, Toledo, and Youngstown. All of the cities are in Ohio, but they represent a range of urban conditions allowing conclusions about the national system. Three of the papers provide empirical explorations of the geography of repeat homebuying in these seven cities. The final paper returns to a national perspective to link the empirical results to the national context.