census.gov Notification
Due to the lapse of federal funding, portions of this website are not being updated. Any inquiries submitted via www.census.gov will not be answered until appropriations are enacted.

Who Moves to Mixed-Income Neighborhoods?

Written by:
Working Paper Number: CES-10-18

Abstract

This paper uses confidential Census data, specifically the 1990 and 2000 Census Long Form data, to study the income dispersion of recent cohorts of migrants to mixed-income neighborhoods. If recent in-migrants to mixed-income neighborhoods exhibit high levels of income heterogeneity, this is consistent with stable mixed-income neighborhoods. If, however, mixed-income neighborhoods are comprised of older homogeneous lower-income (higher income) cohorts combined with newer homogeneous higher-income (lower-income) cohorts, this is consistent with neighborhood transition. Our results indicate that neighborhoods with high levels of income dispersion do in fact attract a much more heterogeneous set of in-migrants, particularly from the tails of the income distribution, but that income heterogeneity does tend to erode over time. Our results also suggest that the residents of mixed-income neighborhoods may be less heterogeneous with respect to lifetime income.

Page Last Revised - October 8, 2021