Property Tax Foreclosure, Spatial Effects, and Neighborhood Racial Demographic Change: Examining Data From Detroit

In recent decades, the city of Detroit has experienced the greatest population loss of any major American city. Applying Event History Analysis methodology to a large dataset containing information on all properties in Detroit between 2002 and 2013, I examine how Property Tax Foreclosure spatially p...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Karl Vachuska
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Frontiers Media S.A. 2021-06-01
Series:Frontiers in Sociology
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fsoc.2021.598911/full
Description
Summary:In recent decades, the city of Detroit has experienced the greatest population loss of any major American city. Applying Event History Analysis methodology to a large dataset containing information on all properties in Detroit between 2002 and 2013, I examine how Property Tax Foreclosure spatially perpetuated itself in Detroit, finding evidence that the number of past but recent Property Tax Foreclosures in a localized area significantly predicts the likelihood of a future foreclosure. I extrapolate these findings to mathematical simulations and find evidence that suggests that initial Property Tax Foreclosures played a significant role in cascading many later on. Finally, building off past research that suggests neighborhood blight disproportionally affects white residential preferences and patterns, I perform an empirical analysis that examines how the initial distribution of Property Tax Foreclosures in Detroit neighborhoods played some role in determining how those neighborhoods have experienced racial demographic change.
ISSN:2297-7775