Anonymous
Post 07/22/2015 21:33     Subject: Do you consider race when looking for a neighborhood to live in?
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.


Are you kidding?
Anonymous
Post 07/22/2015 21:31     Subject: Do you consider race when looking for a neighborhood to live in?
I didn't pay much attention to race but I did look at FARMS rate and the SES of the area.
Anonymous
Post 07/22/2015 21:18     Subject: Do you consider race when looking for a neighborhood to live in?
You bet!

--Courtland Milloy
Anonymous
Post 07/22/2015 20:55     Subject: Do you consider race when looking for a neighborhood to live in?
Anonymous wrote:No. We live downtown DC in a rapidly gentrifying neighborhood and honestly the only factors we looked at was commute to work and price. In the time we lived on our block, it has turned from majority AA to majority everything else. I really like our old AA neighbors and hope they stay because they are much more friendly and neighborly than the new people moving in who I mostly don't know.

We moved from the upper west side of Manhattan and don't ever want to move to the 'burbs where both DH and I grew up. Could not wait to leave and will never go back!


When we moved into our neighborhood (this will give away where we live) it was a mix of older AA families, lower income Chineese families, and young singles. Flash forward 10 years later and many families are either selling or can't afford to live here. The people who are moving in are younger and hipper and the neighborhood has changed a lot.
Anonymous
Post 07/22/2015 20:13     Subject: Do you consider race when looking for a neighborhood to live in?
No. We live downtown DC in a rapidly gentrifying neighborhood and honestly the only factors we looked at was commute to work and price. In the time we lived on our block, it has turned from majority AA to majority everything else. I really like our old AA neighbors and hope they stay because they are much more friendly and neighborly than the new people moving in who I mostly don't know.

We moved from the upper west side of Manhattan and don't ever want to move to the 'burbs where both DH and I grew up. Could not wait to leave and will never go back!
Anonymous
Post 07/22/2015 20:00     Subject: Do you consider race when looking for a neighborhood to live in?
Anonymous wrote:I looked for an area that was somewhat racially diverse when we were looking to buy a house. However, we are a multi-racial family.


+1. I would consider race only in the sense that I don't want my biracial daughter to be the only "brown" kid in her class. The same way I wouldn't want her in an all-black or all-white school either. I grew up in an area (not DMV) where there were maybe 1 or 2 token black kids in each class. I definitely don't want that for my kids.
Anonymous
Post 07/22/2015 19:53     Subject: Re:Do you consider race when looking for a neighborhood to live in?
What a weird question.
Anonymous
Post 07/22/2015 19:49     Subject: Do you consider race when looking for a neighborhood to live in?
As long as it is middle/upper class and attendant level of income and education, we don't care about racial makeup.
Anonymous
Post 07/22/2015 19:49     Subject: Re:Do you consider race when looking for a neighborhood to live in?
Anonymous wrote:I happen to live close to downtown DC and we consider diversity a plus. I love that my preschooler interacts with professional people of all races on a daily basis and hope it leaves an impression on him.

That said, if I ever had an overwhelming desire to move to the burbs for safety, schools, and the posh suburban life (unlikely), yeah let's be honest that I'm going to take race into account in the sense that if I find out the neighborhood is 90 percent black (say pg county) that it's going to be a pretty clear sign that we probably wouldn't fit in. Even the same if I found out a neighborhood is 90 percent Jewish. These are communities that are very tight, have strong religious affiliations and otherwise have some core cultural cornerstones that we either may not totally jive with or alternatively may feel excluded from. Anybody on here arguing that this doesn't still happen in droves is deluding themselves. That said, if my agent drove me to a nice posh suburb and there were some white kids biking on the street, a black family walking a baby, and some Hispanic kids playing in the yard, it would be a big plus to me - as opposed to seeing a bunch of white people doing all that stuff, which would freak me out about the burbs and probably convince me it wasn't the right place for me!



In that case, yes - I would consider race. I don't want to live in a neighborhood that is 90% of any race (even my own). I also live downtown and enjoy the diversity (racial and SES) of living here.

As for the poster who said liberals being inclusive, I find many of the liberals living in DC are limousine liberals.
Anonymous
Post 07/22/2015 19:41     Subject: Re:Do you consider race when looking for a neighborhood to live in?
OP do you only care to hear from white posters? Because we're AA and we just can't live in an area that is predominately white and affluent. We've done it once before, and it was a disaster and we didn't feel that it was a great/safe environment for our pre-teen children. We prefer neighborhoods that are diverse of course, but we'll settle for areas where our neighbors won't question whether or not we belong in the neighborhood while we're walking/driving about, minding our own business.

Our top concerns, in this order:

Diversity
Schools
Price
Commute

Gee, imagine that! Black families with the same concerns and priorities as White and Asian families!


Anonymous
Post 07/22/2015 19:38     Subject: Do you consider race when looking for a neighborhood to live in?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:The truth is that racist government-sanctioned housing policies for a long time DID mean that an influx of non-Whites would tank home prices in affluent areas.

If you want to understand the impact of housing policies on race and race relations in this country, I would strongly recommend that you read this article: http://www.theatlantic.com/features/archive/2014/05/the-case-for-reparations/361631/




I am a conservative (generally) Republican, and I thank you for posting this. I have started reading it and find it very interesting. I look forward to finishing it later tonight.


OP: here. Thank you for this.

Funny, before moving to the states, I always thought of liberals as more inclusive. If thats the case, then why are liberal cities so segregated and there is such a disparity between blacks/hispanics and others i terms of education, wealth and health? I know the answers to this are loaded, but it makes me wonder what liberal politicians are really doing to advance "equality." Perhaps the idea of equality is joke in a capitalistic society. I digress.



Interesting article but I am torn. Africans have been exploited for centuries and it continues to this day but at what point does the perpetual target have to take responsibility for being an easy target. It is human nature to cannibalize the weak, it would behoove demographics not to be weak. One on one discrimination is one thing but a systemic history of raping and pillaging and 500-600 years of more or less taking it speaks to some inherent weakness that must be addressed before true parity can be reached. And it isn't like Europe was the only people taking advantage either, China is repeating the process as we speak in Africa now but yet these problems persist.
Anonymous
Post 07/22/2015 19:22     Subject: Do you consider race when looking for a neighborhood to live in?
Yes. I am brown and I did not want to be an only or one of a small few.
Anonymous
Post 07/22/2015 19:17     Subject: Re:Do you consider race when looking for a neighborhood to live in?
Oh but I thought good schools and SES was the only thing that mattered in these high income neighborhoods. Everyone here swears they don't care who moves into the neighborhood as long as they can afford it
Anonymous
Post 07/22/2015 19:05     Subject: Re:Do you consider race when looking for a neighborhood to live in?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:No pp, MoCo high schools absolutely aren't all a consortium! Hence the massive differences in real estate.

Jeff did you start this thread just to increase your page views this month? Because it touches every DCUM hot button!


OP here: who is Jeff?

I see. My kids are not anywhere near HS age so I have not done much research on MoCo HS. From a quick google search I see that the "DCC" only includes schools east of county, which tend be predominately black and hispanic. I find that peculiar. And it does explain a lot in terms of housing.


Jeff Steele is the owner/moderator of this site so he would be the one to benefit from increased traffic.

Yes, the DCC is a consortium of schools that are all primarily minority because the white majority neighborhoods were politically powerful and did not want any part of a countywide consortium that would dilute their property values. It is a sad reality.
Anonymous
Post 07/22/2015 18:50     Subject: Do you consider race when looking for a neighborhood to live in?
I looked at the racial makeup of the schools, as I didn't want my kids to be at a school dominated by one minority. All elementary schools EOTP at the time were 95%+ black, so we moved WOTP. While I did not look up the demographics of the neighborhoods we were considering, I knew I did not want to move into a predominantly black or gentrifying neighborhood because I was afraid I might be seen as an intruder. I spent a few years in East Berlin in the 90s and did not like the feeling of being a "gentrifier".

Not for one second though would I worry about any African-Americans who move to my neighborhood. If they buy here, they are presumably educated and fairly successful and it would never occur to me to worry about them bringing down property values.

I'm from Europe FWIW.