Segregation in the Boston Metropolitan Area at the End of the 20th Century.

This report shows that 30 years after the enactment of the federal fair housing law and despite favorable circumstances, housing markets in the Boston metropolitan area remain strongly segregated. The report is based on Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA) data and census data. The HMDA data provide information about the race, ethnicity, income, and census tract location of nearly all home purchases involving a mortgage loan nationwide. The report covers the Boston Primary Metropolitan Statistical Area and uses data from the years 1993-98. Data analysis indicates that African American and Hispanic homebuyers are making inroads into the housing markets of towns and cities surrounding Boston, but these buyers are concentrated in a limited number of communities and segregated from European American buyers. The report notes the virtual absence of African American and Latino residents in many of the communities where real estate values are increasing most rapidly, illustrating how minority households remain largely isolated from many of the fastest growing job markets. People of different incomes are buying in different communities outside of Boston. The report draws links between this segregation and poorer schools with fewer resources to offer the minority children who attend them. (Contains 22 tables.) (SM)