Race and Home Ownership from the End of the Civil War to the Present (Figures)

Figure 1: Rates of Owner‐Occupancy, 1870‐2007: Households Headed by Males, Ages 25‐64, in Labor Force, Not in School (“Core Sample”) 100 90 80 70 gap=19 White households gap=23 60 gap=28 50 40 gap=49 gap=26 30 20 10 Black households 0 1870 1880 1890 1900 1910 1920 1930 1940 1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 2007 Notes and sources: See Appendix table 1, Data Appendix (available from the authors on request) 15 Figure 2: Owner‐Occupancy Rates by Race, Core Sample: Ages 25‐34 100 90 80 70 60 White households 50 gap=29 40 30 gap=14 20 Black households 10 0 1870 1900 1910 1920 1930 1940 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 16 Figure 3: Owner‐Occupancy Rates by Race, Ages 55‐64: Core Sample 100 90 White households 80 70 gap=20 60 50 gap=62 40 30 20 Black households 10 0 1870 1900 1910 1920 1930 1940 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 17 Figure 4, Panel A 18 Figure 4, Panel B 19 Table 1: Coefficients of Linear Time Trend from Regressions of the Racial Gap in Homeownership Coefficient of (Year – 1870)/10 1870‐2007 1870‐1910 1910‐2007 Racial Gap in Percentage Points 1.42 (0.35) 6.77 (0.82) 0.42 (0.27) Logistic Transformation 0.08 (0.02) 0.43 (0.07) 0.02 (0.01) Notes: Data are from Appendix Table 1. Racial gap is column 1 is pb – pw; in column 2 is Ln (pw/(1‐pw)) – Ln (pb/(1‐pb)) where pi is the percent owner occupying, i = b(lack), w(hite). The standard error of the estimate in parentheses. 20 Table 2: Race and Owner‐Occupancy by Farm Home Status, 1870‐1910 Panel A: White, All Households Proportion Farm Home Owner‐Occupancy Rate, Farm Home Owner‐Occupancy Rate, Non‐Farm Home Gap (Farm – Nonfarm) Panel B: Black, All Households Proportion Farm Home Owner‐Occupancy Rate, Farm Home Owner‐Occupancy Rate, Non‐Farm Home Gap (Farm – Nonfarm) 1870 1890 1910 0.41 {0.45} 75.6 [73.7] 0.38 71.7 0.29 69.2 39.5 [35.7] 39.4 40.0 36.1 [38.0] 32.3 29.2 0.19 {0.63} 13.5 [13.0] 0.39 22.0 0.40 25.5 4.9 [4.6] 16.7 21.2 8.6 [8.4] 5.3 4.3 Notes to Table 2: Figures pertain to all household heads. Farm = 1 if the census considered the home to be a farm. 1870, 1910: computed from IPUMS samples; see Appendix for definition of ownership in 1870. 1890: African‐American: computed from United States Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census (1918, p. 459). White: 1890: computed from Holmes and Lord (1896, Table 61, p. 175). [ ]: assumes that all households living in multifamily housing (as indicated by the IPUMS variable NUMHH > 1) were renters. { }: proportion of household heads reporting agriculture as industry of employment. Data Appendix In this section we describe our procedure for estimating home ownership rates by race for census years that lack homeownership information in the IPUMS data. 1870. The 1870 census collected information on the value of real property owned by each individual. We create a dummy variable indicating whether or not the head of the household owned real property. This dummy variable will (assuming the census question was answered properly) capture any household head who was an owner‐occupant because, by definition, this person would have owned real estate. However, some individuals who rented their primary residence but owned real estate elsewhere will be counted as owner‐occupying when in fact they were not. The likelihood of overstatement, we believe, is negligible except possibly for household heads living in multi‐family dwellings. Therefore, for household heads who lived in multi‐family housing we assume that anyone who claimed to own real estate but who resided in a dwelling with five or more housing units was not, in fact, an owner‐ occupant; for this purpose we use the IPUMS variable “NUMHH” which records the number of households in the dwelling unit (the IPUMS considers this variable to be approximately equivalent to the variable UNITSSTR, which is available beginning in 1960 and which records the number of housing units in the building structure). In 1870 the probability of owning real estate was a steep negative function of multi‐family status; among whites in the core sample the rate of ownership for heads living in single family dwellings (NUMHH = 1) was 61.8 percent whereas, for heads living in dwellings with five or more units (NUMHH ≥ 5)), the real estate ownership rate was 7.4 percent. Figures shown in [] assume that heads living in all multi‐family dwellings (NUMHH > 1) with positive real estate holdings were renters. 1880. Ransom and Sutch (1977, Table 5.1, p. 84) report that 19.6% of farms operated by African‐ Americans were owner‐occupied. The estimate is derived from their sample from the manuscript records of the 1880 census of agriculture. The sample pertains to the “Cotton South” which, because it crosses state boundaries, is not readily mapped into state totals. We assume that this figure pertains to the entire South; this may be incorrect however we believe that any bias is small.16 For non‐farm homes we estimate the fraction owner‐occupied to be 0.108 for blacks; this figure is the average of an estimate for 1870 using the IPUMS (all black household heads, 0.049) and the published figure for 1890 16 Based on the 1870 IPUMS sample we estimate that 13.5 percent of farm homes occupied by black households were owner‐occupied. If we average this figure with the published ownership rate from the 1890 census for black farm homes (0.220) we get 0.178, which is slightly lower (12 percent) than Ransom and Sutch’s figure. (0.167) from U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census (1918, p. 459). Using the IPUMS we estimate that 31.3 percent of black household heads lived in farm homes in 1880. Therefore, the black owner occupancy rate in 1880 (all household heads) is 0.135 (0.108 x 0.687 + 0.196 x 0.313) or 13.5 percent. To make this into a core sample rate we multiply by an estimate of the ratio of the core sample occupancy rate to the all household heads rate; this estimate (1.015) is linearly interpolated from its value in 1870 (1.0, calculated from Appendix Tables 1 and 2) and 1900 (1.048 = 22.0/21.0, again computed from Appendix Tables 1 and 2). For whites, we back out an estimate of the white ownership rate of farm homes (0.807) using the overall rate of farm ownership reported in the census (0.744, computed from series Da532 and Da530, Carter, et. al 2006, Volume 4, p. 4‐71), our estimate rate of farm ownership for blacks (see above) and the proportion of farm homes occupied by black households (0.103, computed from the 1880 IPUMS). The 1880 non‐farm ownership rate for whites (0.379) is the average of our estimate for 1870 (0.395) from the IPUMS and 1890 (0.363) from Holmes and Lord (1896, p. 175). According to the 1880 IPUMS 40.5 percent of white households resided in farm homes. The overall rate for whites is 0.553 (0.405 x 0.807 + 0.595 x 0.379) or 55.7 percent. This figure pertains to all household heads, so to make it comparable to our core sample we multiply by an estimate of the ratio of occupancy rates for our core sample to all household heads; this estimate (1.018) is linearly interpolated from its value in 1870 (1.042, computed from Appendix Tables 1 and 2) and 1900 (0.969, computed from Appendix Tables 1 and 2). 1890. In 1890 the census attempted to determine the tenure status of every family. If the home occupied by the family was owned by someone in the family, the family was owner‐occupying; if not the family was renting. If the family was owner‐occupying the identity of the owner was so indicated on the census form. In 1896 the Census published a report (Holmes and Lord 1896) in which individuals who were owners (as designated on the 1890 census form) or heads of households (if the family was renting) were classified on the basis of various personal characteristics, including race. Some three decades later the Department of Commerce published Negroes in the United States, 1790‐1915 (U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census 1918) which included a chapter on “Home Ownership and Size of Families”. The chapter contains (p. 459) a table classifying black families by their tenure status in 1890, 1900 and 1910. The 1900 counts by tenure status in the 1918 report are virtually identical to those reported in the 1900 published census, but the 1890 counts in the 1918 report are uniformly higher than those given in the 1896 report, more so for owners than renters. As a result, the 1918 counts imply a slightly higher owner‐occupancy rate in 1890 (18.7 percent) than do the counts in the 1896 report (17.5 percent). Unfortunately the text of the 1918 report is silent as to why the census evidently made upward adjustments to its original 1890 figures. On the belief that the census statisticians of the era had good reasons to make the upward adjustments we have elected to rely on the 1918 counts when constructing our African‐American time series. The census made no subsequent adjustments to its original counts for whites; hence for whites we use the 1896 report. As just noted, the 1918 report gives the percent of black families who were owner‐occupying in 1890 (18.7 percent). We adjust this figure to make it comparable over time by multiplying by an estimate of the ratio of owner‐occupancy for households in our core sample to the owner‐occupancy rate for black families; this estimate (1.03) is linearly interpolated from its value in 1870 (1.0, from Appendix Tables 1 and 2) and 1900 1.045, from Appendix Tables 1 and 2). The adjusted figure for 1890 is shown in Appendix Table 1. For whites we follow a similar procedure except that our 1890 occupancy rate for all white households (51.5) derives from Holmes and Lord (1896, p. 167). The adjustment ratio for whites (linearly interpolated between 1870 and 1900) is 0.994. 1950. The 1950 IPUMS does not report housing tenure status. For non‐farm homes, tenure status by race is reported in U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census (1953a, Table 2). For farm homes, tenure status is reported in U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census (1953b, p. xxiv). For non‐farm homes, the Bureau reported statistics separately for black households; for farm homes, the data are given for non‐whites. We make no adjustment for this as the fraction of non‐black households among non‐white farm households was arguably very small in 1950. For each race we add the total number of owned homes from both sources and divide by total homes to get the figures shown in Appendix Table 2. We adjust the all household rates by an estimate of the ratio of occupancy in the core sample to all households; the estimated ratio is an average of the ratios for 1940 and 1960 (computed from Appendix Tables 1 and 2). The white adjustment ratio is 1.008; the black adjustment ratio is 0.994. Appendix Table 1: Estimated Rates of Owner‐Occupancy per 100 Households: Core Sample (Male Household Heads, Ages 25‐64, In Labor Force, Not in School) Year White Black Racial Gap (White – Black) 1870 56.5 [53.6] 7.7 [7.2] 48.8 [46.4] 1880 56.7 13.7 39.3 1890 51.2 19.3 31.9 1900 47.9 22.0 25.9 1910 47.0 23.5 23.5 1920 47.0 22.9 24.1 1930 48.3 24.2 24.1 1940 43.2 21.1 22.1 1950 59.2 34.1 25.1 1960 68.8 40.8 28.0 1970 73.1 49.7 23.4 1980 76.8 58.0 18.8 1990 74.4 54.1 20.3 2000 77.6 56.5 21.1 22.5 2007 76.5 54.0 ‐26.3 2007 – 1870 20.0 46.3 1910 – 1870 ‐ 9.5 15.8 ‐25.3 1980 – 1910 29.8 34.5 ‐ 4.7 2007 – 1980 ‐0.3 ‐4.0 3.7 Figures give the rate of owner occupancy per 100 households in our core sample. To be included in the core sample households (years which use the IPUMS or ACS) had to be headed by males between the ages of 25 and 64, in the labor force, not enrolled in school. Observations with unreported tenure status are excluded if possible. Source: 1900‐1940, 1960‐2000: IPUMS 1/100 samples; see Ruggles, et. al. (2008). For 1970 we use the F2 Metro sample (this sample reports school attendance); in 1990 and 2000 we use the “un‐weighted” or “flat” samples (see Ruggles, et. al. 2008). []: assumes all individuals in 1870 living in multi‐family dwellings with positive values of real property were renting as opposed to owner‐occupancy. For years which the IPUMS (or ACS) is used households are weighted by the IPUMS (or ACS) household weight variable prior to computing sample statistics. Appendix Table 2: Rates of Owner‐Occupancy per 100 Households: All Household Types Year White Black Racial Gap (White – Black) White, Core Black, Core Sample Sample Fraction Fraction 1870 54.2 [53.6] 7.7 [7.2] 46.5 [46.4] 0.762 0.657 1880 55.3 13.5 41.8 NA NA 1890 51.1 18.7 32.4 NA NA 1900 49.4 21.0 28.4 0.743 0.642 1910 48.5 22.9 25.6 0.745 0.665 1920 48.3 22.5 25.8 0.746 0.676 1930 49.9 24.5 25.4 0.725 0.659 1940 45.6 23.0 22.6 0.690 0.613 1950 58.7 34.3 24.4 NA NA 1960 64.3 38.1 26.2 0.637 0.540 65.4 41.6 23.8 0.567 0.449 1970 1980 67.7 45.2 22.5 0.499 0.358 1990 68.2 43.3 24.9 0.462 0.303 2000 71.3 46.3 25.0 0.433 0.266 2007 72.2 46.5 25.7 0.358 0.251 Figures give the rate of owner occupancy per 100 households. Observations with unreported tenure status are excluded. Source: 1900‐1940, 1960‐2000: IPUMS 1/100 samples; see Ruggles, et. al. (2008). For 1970 we use the F2 Metro sample (this sample reports school attendance); in 1990 and 2000 we use the “un‐weighted” or “flat” samples (see Ruggles, et. al. 2008). See the chapter appendix for procedures used to estimate figures for 1870‐1890, and 1950. []: assumes all individuals living in multi‐family dwellings with positive values of real property were renting as opposed to owner‐occupancy. For years which the IPUMS (or ACS) is used households are weighted by the IPUMS (or ACS) household weight variable prior to computing sample statistics. NA: not applicable Appendix Table 3: Rates of Owner‐Occupancy per 100 Households: Male Household Heads, Ages 25‐34, Not in School, in Labor Force (Core Sample), IPUMS Census Years Year White Black Racial Gap (White – Black) 1870 42.2 [40.0] 4.9 [4.6] 37.3 [34.4] 1900 31.2 12.9 18.3 1910 29.8 13.6 16.2 1920 29.5 12.0 17.5 1930 27.9 10.8 17.1 1940 24.2 9.8 14.4 1960 55.4 26.0 29.4 1970 57.3 33.3 24.0 1980 63.0 42.5 20.5 1990 57.4 32.9 25.7 2000 58.8 36.6 25.3 ‐ 12.0 [‐ 9.1] 2000 ‐ 1870 16.6 31.7 1910 ‐ 1870 ‐12.4 8.7 ‐ 21.1 1960 ‐ 1940 31.2 16.2 15.0 Source: see Appendix Table 1. Figures in this table are computed the same way as in Appendix Table 1, except that household heads are between the ages of 25 and 34. Appendix Table 4: Rates of Owner‐Occupancy per 100 Households: Male Household Heads, Ages 55‐64, Not in School, in Labor Force (Core Sample), IPUMS Census Years Year White Black Racial Gap (White – Black) 1870 72.0 [68.2] 10.7 [10.1] 61.7 [58.1] 1900 67.6 33.2 34.4 1910 65.7 36.1 29.6 1920 66.0 38.0 28.0 1930 67.7 40.0 27.7 1940 61.7 36.6 25.1 1960 73.5 53.2 20.3 1970 79.0 60.2 18.8 1980 85.7 71.3 14.4 1990 87.0 73.3 13.7 2000 87.8 73.4 14.4 ‐ 46.9 2000 ‐ 1870 15.8 62.7 1910 ‐ 1870 ‐6.3 26.1 ‐ 32.4 1960 ‐ 1940 11.8 16.6 ‐ 5.3 Source: see Appendix Table 1. Figures in this table are computed the same way as in Appendix Table 1, except that household heads are between the ages of 55 and 64.