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Residential mobility between cities and suburbs: race, suburbanization, and back-to-the-city moves

  • Migration, Ethnic Stratification, and Aging
  • Published:
Demography

Abstract

Information from the 1979 to 1985 waves of the Panel Study of Income Dynamics is merged with data on respondents’ tract and metropolitan area of residence to examine patterns and determinants of residential mobility between central cities and suburbs. Consistent with the life-cycle model of residential mobility, mobility in both directions declines with age, but on balance the presence of young children deters moving to the suburbs. Among blacks, education increases the probability of moving from cities to suburbs, while high income retains blacks and whites in suburbs. Consistent with the place stratification model. blacks are substantially less likely than whites to move from cities to suburbs, and substantially more likely to move from suburbs to cities, even after standardizing for racial differences in sociodemographic characteristics. High levels of violent crime and unemployment in cities relative to suburbs also tend to spur city-to-suburb mobility or inhibit suburb-to-city moves.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Sociology, State University of New York at Albany, 12222, NY, Albany

    Scott J. South & Kyle D. Crowder

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  1. Scott J. South
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  2. Kyle D. Crowder
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Correspondence to Scott J. South.

Additional information

This research was supported by grants from the National Science Foundation (SBR-95 I 1732, SBR-95 I2290). We acknowledge the helpful comments and advice of Glenn Deane, Stewart Tolnay, and several anonymous Demography reviewers.

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South, S.J., Crowder, K.D. Residential mobility between cities and suburbs: race, suburbanization, and back-to-the-city moves. Demography 34, 525–538 (1997). https://doi.org/10.2307/3038307

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