Gentrification and Residential Mobility in Philadelphia.

Gentrification has provoked considerable controversy surrounding its effects on residential displacement. This paper draws on a unique large-scale consumer credit database to examine the mobility patterns of residents in gentrifying neighborhoods in Philadelphia from 2002-2014. Unlike previous studies, our data allow us to examine mobility rates and residential origins and destinations of various strata of residents within the same neighborhoods. We also utilize more precise measures of gentrification and consider its various stages. We find that, on average, residents in neighborhoods that have been gentrifying for many years or have rapidly gentrified in recent years have higher mobility rates than those in nongentrifying neighborhoods, but these movers, who are primarily financially healthy, are generally no more likely to move to lower quality neighborhoods than residents moving from nongentrifying neighborhoods. While residents with low credit scores or without mortgages and longer-term residents are generally no more likely to move from gentrifying neighborhoods compared to their counterparts in nongentrifying neighborhoods, when they do move, they are more likely to move to lower quality neighborhoods. Further, compared to movers with low credit scores, younger residents and residents with higher credit scores are far more likely to move into gentrifying and higherincome neighborhoods relative to non-gentrifying, low-income neighborhoods. Together, the results demonstrate how gentrification both directly and indirectly concentrates disadvantaged residents into disadvantaged neighborhoods, contributing to the persistence of poor, urban neighborhoods in Philadelphia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]