Revisiting recent findings on gated communities and racial homogeneity

Abstract

This paper seeks to determine the propensity of racial minorities to live in gated communities. A recent study by Plaut in this journal finds that nonwhites are more likely to live in gated communities than whites for both renters and homeowners. Such a finding would indicate a major change in housing patterns. I replicate and build upon her study by including multiple years of data, disaggregating the nonwhite variable into its important racial components, and then interacting race with specific housing type (multi-family units vs. single family units). I find that her potentially innovative results are statistical artifacts. For homeowners, the results generally indicate that nonwhite individuals are not more likely to own a home in a gated community, especially for single family detached units. At best, they are no more or no less likely than white residents to own a home in a gated community. Minority renters are sometimes more likely to indicate that they live in a gated community, but generally only for multi-family rental units. Differences between African American and Latino gating patterns are also discussed.