Book Details

Redefining Urban and Suburban America: Evidence from Census 2000, Volume 2

Results from Census 2000 reveal striking changes in the nation’s cities and suburbs during the 1990s. Thanks to a decade of strong economic growth, concentrated poverty in the inner cities declined dramatically, homeownership rose among young minority household, and workers from abroad settled in growing metropolitan areas that had experienced little immigration to date.

The first volume in the Redefining Urban and Suburban America series focused on population growth and decline and dramatic changes occurring in the racial and ethnic makeup of cities and suburbs. This second volume focuses on an even richer set of subjects from Census 2000 and makes clear that regional differences add texture to these broader social and economic trends. Using data from the Census “long form,” the contributors probe migration, income and poverty, and housing trends in the nation’s largest cities and metropolitan areas.

This volume demonstrates the continued ascendance of the Sunbelt, whose cities and suburbs are growing magnets for both domestic migrants and immigrants. It portrays stunning improvements in the conditions of the nation’s poorest neighborhoods, along-side growing numbers of lower-income households in cities. And the chapters highlight significant progress on homeownership amid a troubling counter-current of families increasingly burdened by housing costs.

Providing a closer look at the unprecedented social and economic changes taking place in the nation’s oldest and newest communities, this volume explores the implications for a diverse set of policy areas, including metropolitan development patterns, immigrant incorporation, and the promotion of affordable housing and homeownership.

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