This study investigates spatial dependence and neighborhood effects in mortgage lending disparities in the Southern California five-county region. In doing so, it assesses indicators of primary mortgage market activity and their determinants for the region as a whole. The study compiles data from the 2002 HMDA and the 2000 U.S. Census to undertake a variety of analyses, including computation, assessment, and mapping of social-economic characteristics, as well as home mortgage origination, denial rates, and secondary market purchase rates by census tracts among sampled areas and population cohorts. Cluster analyses of social-economic and mortgage parameters show distinctive patterns of spatial clustering among tracts across the region. In observing these blueprints of spatial dependence, the study further undertakes a geographically weighted regression (GWR) to analyze spatial non-stationarity in the determinants of variability in neighborhood primary market loan denial rates for the year 2002. (More)

This study seeks to identify the conditions and political activities that enable impoverished urban communities to become re-integrated into the urban economic system. (More)

High rates of crime and violence in public housing developments over the past two decades led to a dramatic shift in housing policy for low-income families. High-rise public housing developments were demolished and replaced with low-density mixed-income communities, forcing thousands of families to relocate into the private market. Underlying these changes is the notion that neighborhood disadvantage causes negative outcomes for children. The three empirical studies of this dissertation examine this relationship. (More)

I examine the importance of (1) objective socioeconomic disparities; (2) housing market perceptions and information; (3) mutual preferences for same race neighbors; and (4) prejudice and negative stereotypes in understanding of persisting residential segregation. (More)