Do Blacks Pay More for Housing?

This paper reports on a study of the prices paid by blacks and whites for housing in Dallas in 1960. The technique used to compare the price of housing with different dimensions of characteristics was to estimate implicit prices of characteristics bought by blacks and whites. Two comparisons were made. The first was based on a unit with the average of all black characteristics. The second was based on a unit with the average of all white characteristics. No statistically significant differences were found. This study represents an effort to identify a difference in the prices paid by blacks and whites for housing by identifying differences in the price paid for common characteristics. The estimation of implicit prices resulted in the prices of some characteristics being higher in the white sample, some higher in the black sample. Two indexes were created, one using black housing characteristics as a base, one using white housing characteristics as a base. For the former, we found the price of white housing to be 4 percent higher. For the latter, we found the price of black housing to be 0.3 percent higher. Neither difference was statistically significant. The results obtained are, of course, peculiar to Dallas. It may be of interest to compare the population characteristics of Dallas with other cities. The nonwhite population of Dallas in 1960 was 19 percent of the total population. This may be compared with a 14 percent nonwhite population of New York and 23.6 nonwhite population for Chicago. The nonwhite population of the Dallas SMSA grew by 56 percent (as compared with 44 percent for the white population) during the period from 1950 to 1960. (Figures for the city lack some meaning because of the incorporation of new areas into the city.) This increase was greater than that for Saint Louis (36 percent) or Washington D.C. (44 percent) but less than that for Chicago (66 percent). While it is difficult to draw conclusions about housing demand from popula... [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]