Over the past decade, the share of American households who live in single-family detached homes has remained fairly constant at 61.5 percent plus or minus a couple of tenths of a percent. But the share of non-Hispanic whites who live in single-family detached homes has grown slowly but steadily from 68.4 percent in 2007 to 69.0 percent in 2017. At the same time, the share of blacks who live in single-family detached homes has declined from 48.3 percent in 2007 to 46.4 percent in 2017.
Some people think I’m imposing a cultural bias when I say that single-family detached homes are the most preferable type of housing recorded in table B25024 of the American Community Survey, which also includes single-family attached (row houses), duplexes, apartments of various sizes, mobile homes, boats, and recreation vehicles. Many urban planners believe that multifamily housing is superior, but many of those planners themselves live in single-family homes. It appears that planners’ eagerness to put other people in multifamily housing may have its greatest effect on low-income people, of whom blacks are disproportionately represented.
In fact, in some places it appears that blacks are losing out to non-Hispanic whites in the choice of housing stock. In sixteen states and a distressingly large number of counties, cities, and urban areas, the percentage of non-Hispanic whites living in single-family detached homes grew even as the percentage of blacks shrank. Continue reading
