Do you consider race when looking for a neighborhood to live in?

[Anonymous]

8% pp again. more googling reveals that that value is from a 1970s study of the Detroit area.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:8% pp again. more googling reveals that that value is from a 1970s study of the Detroit area.

Ok... so right after the riots? No surprise then.

[Anonymous]

Its pretty basic folks

People buy based on commute and great school rating which is corrrelated with income which is correlated with race

If you are a liberal heaping praise on diversity and this is you you are a hypocrite

[Anonymous]

I think most people in the area are more concerned with "class rank" than racial make up of a neighborhood.

[Anonymous]

the two are linked

I think most people know it but don't want to admit it?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think most people in the area are more concerned with "class rank" than racial make up of a neighborhood.

+ 1 MILLION

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Its pretty basic folks

People buy based on commute and great school rating which is corrrelated with income which is correlated with race

If you are a liberal heaping praise on diversity and this is you you are a hypocrite

http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/you-keep-using-that-word-i-do-not-think-it-means-what-you-think-it-means

[Anonymous]

I know this thread is really long, but what neighborhood does the OP live in? U dont have to be specific but I"m curious. Its it Potomac or Bethesda? The same thing is happening in DeSoto texas. black middle class people flock to that area and now real estate agents are telling whites & Asians to steer clear. So what will happen? Housing prices will fall as well as property value because the pool of potential buyers gets cut in half because of the "racial steering" that going on SMH

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think most people in the area are more concerned with "class rank" than racial make up of a neighborhood.

Yes, but race is what contributes to that rank. Directly (population breakdown) as well as indirectly (school ratings, crime stat, etc.)

The OP's question has been answered enough; some just can't get of their soap boxes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My perspective--

I see it as my job to prepare my children for tomorrow's world. Tomorrow's world is increasingly brown. We are white and have a comfortable HHI, Ivy League education, and I didn't want my kids raised like I was-- knowing hardly any black people or Hispanic people.

So we chose a close in diverse neighborhood in NE DC. We send our kids to a very diverse charter school. By choice and by happenstance, because where we love makes this easy--
- our kids' pediatricians are AA women running their own practice
- our kids' dentist is an AA woman
- our kids' principle is an AA woman
- our kids' music teacher is an AA man
- and of course our kids' President is an AA man

We have neighbors who are gay married men.

Diversity and tolerance are core values in our lives. We chose a place that helps us live that, and that helps prepare our children for the diverse, vibrant world they will be living in.

my question

How old are your kids? You chose a charter, which tends to draw in a specific group of people. Would you send your kids to your local NE HS?

Living in a diverse 'hood and taking your children to educated experts isn't the same as having them attend the local school.

Diversity means different things to different people.

Not PP, but I don't think valuing diversity means sending your kids to failing schools. I'm AA and no way would I send my child to many schools in DC. You have to balance valuing diversity with other things, like the importance of a solid education. Each family has to decide where to draw the line re: that balance. For my family, it's buying in a neighborhood that is diverse, but also zoned for Deal/Wilson. For PP, it's a diverse neighborhood and charter school, and patronizing services staffed/owned by PoC when possible. This sounds like a good and totally reasonable balance to me.

A good reminder that a lot of families don't have many options. In this metro area, household income is the predominant factor - families will live in the best possible place they can; that may be where the schools are bad, crime is high and amenities are low, but we shouldn't be quick to assume it's because they don't care about their kids (or, the favorite DCUM mantra - don't value education).

And then, in many other places redlining is still happening under the radar. Real estate agents won't show houses and banks won't approve loans in certain areas for qualified minorities, so even solid middle class people settle and concentrate in lower income areas. Not because they dislike living among whites, or don't care about their kids, but because those are the best options available.

For our AA family with a young son, we see diversity as his best chance at thriving for reasons too many to enumerate here. Germane to this discussion, I admit that we feel as nervous about Chevy Chase (where we've tentatively looked at houses) as we do about some areas of the city where residents and schools are still mostly black. Reading DCUM for the last few years have only solidified reservations about certain people in certain areas, and I'm glad we have options.

I'm the PP you're responding to. Thanks for pointing out that redlining still occurs--I'd commented upthread that it occurred in the past.

We also looked in CC during our housing search recently. My husband does a lot of training outdoors for triathlons, and I wasn't keen on the idea of him running through CC on a regular basis alone as a black male (he was fine with it, though). However, I think it's a great area, so I think at the end of the day we would've been fine there (although we ended up moving to a different NW DC neighborhood).

We also have a young child and have thought about all the things you allude to in your post re: importance of diversity. Good luck in your search.

We have an AA couple + kids on our block in CC. I'm a white person, so I don't get it 100%, but I think I understand the concerns (fear of random stops by the locals cops, being a suburban pioneer, how will the other kids treat my kids, etc.), and I have no doubt that they are rational. But in honesty I don't think you would be treated significantly differently than other neighbors. (Its not like we're all hosting daily evening neighborhood BBQs and hosting swingers evenings.)

[Anonymous]

From the original post:

Anonymous wrote:The reason I am asking is because I'm trying to understand who folks around here (DMV) think.

Recently an affluent black couple purchased a pretty expensive home on our block (I think the most expensive) in MoCo. The racial make-up of my small neighborhood is about 60/30/10 white/asian/black+other. Recently, more blacks have moved into the area. In recent discussions with my neighbors, they have shared concerns that, with so many homes for sale in the area, more blacks may be moving in, and the value of our property would start to tank. Their logic wasn't that they think blacks would not keep up with the home or be good neighbors. It was the perception that other more affluent white or asian families who would buy in the area might be turned off by seeing a black couple. Hence, demand would drop since whites and asians in this area generall have more buying power. They then cited examples from PG county and East MoCo, which have affluent blacks in their neighborhood but have lower housing values and lower performing public schools.

To me this line of thinking is almost like a self fulfilling prophesy. Is this truly a concern for you when you are looking to purchase a home/or rent? I'm not asking to judge, but moreso to understand where these beliefs derive.

Yeah, the answer is "I'm/we're not racist, but assume other people are."

Judging by some of the comments here, it's a safe assumption. Thankfully, it's not true for everyone but even here in the DMV people speak one way and act another. Just one of many reasons segregated housing persists, even - and maybe especially - among the affluent. Just as one group doesn't want their home values to go down, another group doesn't want to spend good money on a neighborhood that shuns them (hence, wealthy black enclaves).

So I wouldn't say it's as simple as schools and commute.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm the PP you asked the question of above. My kids are in elementary school. Their charter runs through high school and we expect to stay there for the duration, assuming things stay good. The charter is diverse from both a racial and socio economic perspective. It is truly diverse -- our local public school, unfortunately, is not.

The thread was about racial diversity-- so that's what I talked about, and the reasons why as an affluent white family we have chosen to live in a neighborhood that is not predominantly white or affluent. (Although things are changing fast.) In other threads, I've seen people make assumptions that people like us, who choose to live in what some see as "transitional" neighborhoods, are shortchanging their children. I don't see it that way, for the reasons I talked about above.

I agree it can be challenging to have people from different economic backgrounds in one's life. We definitely do less well on that front, but my kids have a range of friends.

What does diversity mean to you?

Diversity to me means being among people from different backgrounds, but sharing a similar focus/drive/goal in life. The different backgrounds enrich us, but the similarities bind us - both are equally important. I don't give a flip what their skin color or sexual orientation is - I don't make it a point to count this as any meaningful source of diversity. I find it laughable that anyone would attach diversity to these superficial characteristics. If all you do is put yourself amongst a bunch of people who look/act differently from you, all you have is chaos, not meaningful diversity.

My kids have a range of friends from white, asian, european, and middle eastern families. They are all, however, from families with successful purpose driven parents who value education and hard work. They serve as role models to each other, help each other succeed in life and school.

because those things count as diversity as well

How is skin color important? How is sexual orientation important? Why are they issues at all? Why seek out diversity based on these superficial and unimportant characteristics? By basing your definition of diversity on skin color and sexual orientation, you are committing what you are attempting to avoid in the first place: judging people by their skin color and sexual orientation. Ironic.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:the two are linked

I think most people know it but don't want to admit it?

Yes, class and race are linked, but that isn't the fault of the individuals who are making a decision about housing. So if they choose a neighborhood filled with people of similar SES, and it is predominantly white, they are still making their decision based on SES, and you cannot accuse them of racism or hypocrisy. I know you would like to (after all, liberals are hypocrites no matter what they do), but you have no basis to.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I know this thread is really long, but what neighborhood does the OP live in? U dont have to be specific but I"m curious. Its it Potomac or Bethesda? The same thing is happening in DeSoto texas. black middle class people flock to that area and now real estate agents are telling whites & Asians to steer clear. So what will happen? Housing prices will fall as well as property value because the pool of potential buyers gets cut in half because of the "racial steering" that going on SMH

I'm so curious as to where OP is too, Potomac was my first thought. In addition to racism, I wonder if there's also some jealousy/disbelief involved in the AA family buying the nicest house on the block.

[Anonymous]

We have an AA couple + kids on our block in CC. I'm a white person, so I don't get it 100%, but I think I understand the concerns (fear of random stops by the locals cops, being a suburban pioneer, how will the other kids treat my kids, etc.), and I have no doubt that they are rational. But in honesty I don't think you would be treated significantly differently than other neighbors. (Its not like we're all hosting daily evening neighborhood BBQs and hosting swingers evenings.)

I'm the one who first posted doubts about CC. It's a whole host of things, not just how neighbors treat you. I'm not trying to be facetious or snarky, but you're right that you don't get it 100% - I"m not sure it's possible for you to know or think about all the ways discriminatory behavior can happen. One PP mentioned fear of her husband getting harassed for jogging through his own neighborhood. My husband and I went to a party at a friend's house and the caterer, thinking I was part of her staff, jumped on me for using the guest bathroom. It's these seemingly insignificant "oops" moments, some innocuous and some pretty harmful, that can add up. My main concern is unconscious bias from teachers and school administrators. Small things with big impact that are hard to talk about, harder to prove, but factor into decisions about where to live. Especially if I'm paying ballpark $1 million for a house.