Race, class, unemployment, and housing vacancies in Detroit: An empirical analysis

This paper is an analysis of the spatial distribution of housing vacancies in Detroit in four census years: 1980, 1990, 2000, and 2010. Our analysis is largely grounded in the contexts of race and class. We use both cartographic and statistical methods to illustrate the distribution of vacancies at the census tract level and to model the conditions that contribute to vacancy rates. A cartographic analysis of the spatial distribution of housing vacancies over time in Detroit indicates that a weak general pattern of outward diffusion occurred from 2000 to 2010. A regression analysis indicates there is a structural pattern of race and class characteristics at the tract level, as measured respectively by percent White—tied to the potential for White flight—and by unemployment rates—tied to financial factors of housing abandonment, that are good predictors of housing vacancy rates over fairly long time periods. Other good predictors are a tract’s percentage of rental housing and, to a lesser degree, the age of a tract’s population.