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Working Paper 9018

PROINTEGRATIVE SUBSIDIES AND THEIR EFFECT ON
HOUSING MARKETS: DO RACE-BASED LOANS WORK?
by Brian A. Cromwell

Brian A. Cromwell is an economist at
the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland.
For useful advice and suggestions, the
author would like to thank Paul Bauer,
Randall Eberts, Erica Groshen, George
Galster, James Poterba, John Yinger,
and participants in the 1990 NBER Summer
Institute session on state and local
public finance. Don DeMarco, Anne Stevens,
and Diana Vargo of the Shaker Heights
Housing Office provided invaluable access
to the organization's files. Thomas Bier
of Cleveland State University generously
provided data on housing transactions and
house quality. Fadi Alameddine, Kristin
Priscak, Ralph Day, and Jason Snow provided
excellent technical and research assistance.
The author retains responsibility for any
remaining errors.
Working papers of the Federal Reserve
Bank of Cleveland are preliminary
materials circulated to stimulate
discussion and critical comment. The
views stated herein are those of the
author and not necessarily those of the
Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland or of
the Board of Governors of the Federal
Reserve System.
December 1990

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Introduction
Prointegrative housing subsidies--low-interestloans made to
homebuyers on the basis of race in order to promote and maintain racial
integration--are a new and controversial development in open-housing policy.
Typically, black homebuyers receive subsidies to buy in predominately white
areas, while white homebuyers receive subsidies to buy in predominately black
or integrated areas.

Programs now exist in the Detroit, Chicago,

Philadelphia, and Cleveland metropolitan areas, where funds are provided both
by private foundations and local governments. The impact of these programs on
housing markets has received little attention in the economics or urban
studies literature, however.1
Race-based subsidies can affect a local housing market through
several channels. First, those who qualify for a subsidy can outbid other
would-be purchasers, placing upward pressure on housing values. Therefore,
controlling for house quality, one would expect subsidized transactions to
command higher prices.

Second, subsidies can be a useful marketing tool for

attracting potential buyers to an area, possibly increasing demand and raisin$
prices.

1
Galster (1990) examined the impact of affirmative marketing strategies on
racial change in Cleveland Heights and Shaker Heights, Ohio, between 1970 and
1980. He found that these programs resulted in greater integration of
initially all-white areas and less racial change in substantially integrated
areas. He found no evidence that the programs increased white demand in
integrated areas. However, the period he examined predated the prointegrative
loan program.

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A more important effect of these programs, however, may be their
impact on expectations of future racial composition. As discussed in Chambers
(1988) and Galster (1990), the dynamics of racial change in many metropolitan
areas involve the evaporation of white demand--knownas white flight-following a neighborhood's initial integration, leading to subsequent
resegregation. Popular wisdom holds that this process of resegregation is
accompanied by reduced housing prices and deteriorating public services.2
Empirical evidence suggests that, controlling for house quality, housing
prices are lower in neighborhoods undergoing rapid transition from all white
to all black. When a community initiates or continues to support a
raced-based subsidy program, this can signal a firm commitment to maintaining
integration. To the extent that such a program reduces the risk of
resegregation and the potential financial loss to homeowners, its initiation
can have a significant positive effect on housing prices and white demand.
This paper examines the impact of the most extensive race-based
subsidy program administered by a local government: the Fund for the Future of
Shaker Heights (FFSH).

The City of Shaker Heights, Ohio (in suburban

Cleveland), initiated the FFSH in May 1986, making it the longest-running
program of its kind in the country. In 1989, the FFSH received the Ford
Foundation's annual award for "innovations in state and local government."
Open-housing activists consider the program a model for other communities that
wish to promote and maintain racial integration.

************
2

See the discussion of racial change in Husock (1989).

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The FFSH provides low-interest loans to whites who buy in the
integrated neighborhoods of the suburb and blacks who buy in the predominately
white areas. Because of the distribution of race and housing stock in Shaker
Heights (the predominately white neighborhoods consist of luxury homes, while
the integrated neighborhoods consist of relatively modest homes), the program
has effectively been directed toward maintaining white demand. This is
particularly true in the neighborhood known as Lomond, where a significant
number of home purchases include subsidies (a large majority of loans made by
the FFSH have facilitated purchases there).
To examine the effect of the FFSH loan program on the Lomond area, I
first obtained data for all single-family home purchases in Shaker Heights and
in a control group of surrounding communities for the years 1983 through 1989.
These data were then merged with detailed information on the racial
composition of neighborhoods at the census-tract level and on house quality
for each transaction. Given the panel nature of the data, I was able to
control for fixed neighborhood characteristics. I also obtained transactionlevel data on the race of buyers and sellers for sales within the Lomond
neighborhood.
The empirical analysis presented here has two parts.

First, I estimate

the direct impact of the FFSH subsidies on racial composition within Lomond
with a logit model of the probability that a house transaction will involve a
white seller or buyer.

Second, I measure the financial effects of the program

through a simple hedonic price equation that explains transaction prices as a
function of house quality, neighborhood racial composition, and fixed
neighborhood effects. (The limitations of hedonic price estimation are

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discussed in detail in section 3.)

To identify the program's impact on the

Lomond housing market, a measure of loan eligibility is entered into the price
equation in order to ascertain whether the market intervention systematically
changed the transaction prices.

I use variation in loan eligibility amounts

over time and across streets to distinguish the impact of the loan program
from general appreciation in the area.
Results suggest that the FFSH subsidies have contributed to racial
stability, and that initiation of the program coincided with appreciation of
housing prices in the Lomond area. Subsidies have had the most impact on
integrated streets where the nonwhite racial composition is between 30 and 70
percent. Since the FFSH was established in 1986, the probability that whites
will buy houses on a street within this range has risen approximately 20
percentage points, while house prices, which had lagged behind those of
comparable communities, have appreciated 5.8 percent per year.

These

estimates cannot identify, however, significant appreciation due to variation
in loan amounts over time, suggesting that the fixed signaling effect of the
program dominates the financial effects of the relatively small subsidies.
This paper is organized as follows. Section 1 discusses previous
research on race and housing and reviews the initial efforts at integration
maintenance.

Section 2 examines the history of the Shaker Heights loan

program and the racial change and housing prices in Lomond. Section 3 reviews
the data sources used for estimation and discusses the econometric
specifications employed. Section 4 presents the logit estimates on racial
change, and section 5 presents the hedonic price estimates. Section 6
concludes.

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1. Previous Race and Housing Studies
Research dealing with the impact of racial composition and racial
change on housing markets typically measures whether black households pay
different housing prices than white households, with most studies measuring
racial price differentials in terms of differences across areas of varying
racial composition. Mieszkowski's (1979) review and an update by Chambers
(1988) suggest that analyses using 1950s and 1960s data tend to show higher
housing prices in black areas, while those employing more recent data are more
likely to report lower prices in predominately black or changing
neighborhoods.
Studies using 1960s data for single metropolitan areas show that
blacks paid more for equivalent housing in black and integrated neighborhoods
(see King and Mieszkowski [1973], Yinger [1978], and Schafer [1979]).

Follain

and Malpezzi (1980), however, use the Annual Housing Surveys of 1974-76 to
measure Standard Metropolitan Statistical Area (SMSA)-wide price differentials
for 39 SMSAs and find discounts for black owners in 34. Schnare and Struyk
(1977) report that for Boston and Pittsburgh, premiums in black areas
decreased substantially between 1960 and 1970.
Studies such as the one by Follain and Malpezzi suffer from their
inability to measure the racial composition of neighborhoods and other
neighborhood characteristics accurately. Chambers (1988) shows that
controlling for fixed neighborhood attributes reduced the estimated price
discount for blacks from 20 percent to 7 percent in Chicago. Results reported
here are based on unusually detailed annual information on race at the

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census-tract level (or, in some cases, even at the street level).

The panel

nature of the data allows for the control of fixed neighborhood effects as
well.

Determinants of Racial Change

A standard explanation for the disappearance of the price premium in
black neighborhoods is that white suburbanization has increased the supply of
housing available to blacks, relieving the demand pressure that had built up
in many black areas in the 1950s and 1960s (especially in northern and
midwestern cities).

However, the dynamics of suburbanization can also

involve the reduction of white demand in those neighborhoods first opened to
blacks in the 1970s.
Over time, of course, the proportion of nonwhite residents in a given
neighborhood depends on the racial composition of the out-movers and
in-movers. The empirical literature has centered on the relative importance
of the various components of white/nonwhite in- and out-migration. (See
Galster [I9901 for a recent review.)
Evidence on out-migration is mixed.

Early studies, including Mayer

(1960) and Damerall (1968), find that the probability of white out-migration
increases with nonwhite in-migration. Opinion poll data also show that whites
become "uncomfortable" and are more likely to move as the proportion of
nonwhites increases. Other studies, however, suggest that white mobility is

************
3

This section draws in part on Chambers (1988).

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unaffected by racial ~ o m ~ o s i t i o n .
Wilson
~
(1983) finds that, during the
1960s, white out-migration rates from integrated tracts were significantly
higher than from all-white areas, but only for those neighborhoods that would
have been expected to have low mobility. The differential disappears when
tracts with higher predicted mobility are compared.
The impact of racial composition on in-migration is more obvious.
Opinion polls have consistently shown that most whites prefer to live in
predominantly white neighborhoods, while most blacks and Hispanics favor areas
with balanced proportions of whites and nonwhites.

Galster (1982) supports

these findings in an econometric study of the impact of racial composition on
bids by whites and nonwhites for comparable housing. Other studies of actual
mobility show that, all else equal, whites are less likely to choose
neighborhoods with higher percentages of nonwhite residents (see Wilson
[1983]).
Housing activists have charged that racial change is also spurred by
unethical and illegal real estate practices.

Blockbusting, panic peddling,

and steering have resulted in whites fleeing neighborhoods undergoing racial
change. Although declared unlawful, flagrantly racist practices in real
estate sales, financing, renting, and appraising are alleged to persist
because of weak enforcement of fair-housing laws.

Even normal real estate

practices, such as door-to-dooror telephone solicitation for listings and
intensive use of "for sale" signs, can be indistinguishable from racially

4
See Wolf and Lebeaux (1969), Guest and Zuiches (1971), and other papers
cited in Galster (1990).
5

See Farley et al. (1978) and Schuman, Steeh, and Bobo (1985).

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discriminatory ones, because these "benign" practices may also encourage
whites to sell.6
Empirical evidence thus suggests that the reduction of white demand in
integrated and racially changing neighborhoods is an important element of the
dynamics of racial change. These dynamics--possiblyspurred by real estate
practices--canresult in the rapid resegregation of neighborhoods. The
experience in many communities has been that "integration is no more than the
brief span of time between the arrival of the first black and the departure of
the last white."7 Chicago suburbs such as Dixmoor, East Chicago Heights,
Markham, Maywood, Phoenix, and Robbins and Cleveland suburbs such as East
Cleveland and Warrensville Heights have been unable to maintain racially mixed
housing patterns and school enrollment. Other suburbs such as Blue Island,
North Chicago, Chicago Heights, or Hammon in the Chicago area and Garfield
Heights in the Cleveland area have remained integrated, but have black and
white households concentrated in separate

neighborhood^.^

The reduction in

white demand for homes in integrated and racially changing areas is consistent
with the presence of lower housing prices in those areas.

************
6

Lind (1982) describes several court cases involving such practices.

7

Alfred and Marcoux (1970).

8

See Lind (1982).

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Intepration Maintenance Efforts
Community groups and local governments have engaged in a wide range of
activities to counteract the dynamics of racial change that eventually lead to
resegregation.
Illegal real estate practices are monitored through fair-housing
"audits" by persons (testers) who pose as would-be homebuyers and then report
any unethical or illegal treatment.

In addition, activists poll recent

homebuyers about their experience in the marketplace. Studies of real estate
advertising in newspapers have also documented racial discrimination. When
illegal real estate practices are uncovered, litigation is often the next
step.
Some municipalities also regulate legal but unfavorable real estate
practices through legislation. In particular, direct solicitation for sales
listings and the posting of "for sale" signs, practices closely associated
with blockbusting, have been targeted. Other cities--includingShaker Heights
and Cleveland Heights--banall signs from front yards or residential property.
Bellwood, Illinois, requires real estate firms to secure a permit in order to
solicit door to door, by mail, or over the telephone. A Cleveland Heights
ordinance establishes a means by which homeowners can inform realtors that
they do not wish to be approached.
Rather than adopting restrictive and mandatory sign and solicitation
bans, many municipalities have established housing and community development
offices to implement affirmative action strategies. Most of these strategies

************
9

See Yinger (1986).

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have a marketing aspect. For instance, advertising, often directed at
potential white homebuyers, is used to project a favorable image of the
community. Housing information services may also be provided.

Shaker Heights

and Cleveland Heights; Oak Park, Illinois; Southfield, Michigan; and
University City, Missouri, are among those cities furnishing substantial
information for individual buyers and renters.

In some cases, such housing

services urge potential residents to consider neighborhoods where their
presence would not contribute to segregation. Sometimes, however, these
services are denied to whites considering predominantly white areas or to
blacks considering integrated or predominantly black areas. Several
communities sponsor educational programs for realtors and provide incentives
for them to cooperate with affirmative marketing strategies.
Finally, an offshoot of affirmative marketing plans is the use of
financial incentives to maintain racial integration, most often taking the
form of low-interest loans. Community groups and fair-housing and religious
organizations were the first to try such an approach. In an effort to attract
white homebuyers, neighborhood groups in Shaker Heights made loans on a small
scale beginning in 1960. The Fund for an Open Society, in Philadelphia, was
established in 1978 to subsidize the movement of blacks into predominately
white suburbs. Jewish residents in Cleveland Heights and Southfield,
Michigan, established funds to promote the in-migration of young Jewish
families, thereby protecting their own substantial investments in local
cultural and religious institutions. The first fund explicitly supported by a
local government rather than by private interests was the FFSH, to which we
now turn.

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2. The Fund for the Future of Shaker Heights
The intervention of Shaker Heights community groups and government
into real estate markets in order to promote stable racial integration dates
back to 1957. Like other heavily industrial Great Lakes cities, Cleveland
experienced major black in-migration during and immediately after World War
11.

By 1960, the city was 28.6 percent black, with black neighborhoods

expanding out of the traditional ghetto located east of the Cuyahoga River,
which serves as a significant dividing line between the east and west sides.
Because black in-migration coincided with significant white flight from the
city proper, Cleveland was 43.8 percent black by 1980, while most of the
city's eastern neighborhoods (including those abutting Shaker Heights) were
more than 90 percent black.
Seeking to escape crime and deteriorating local public services,
blacks also moved into the adjoining inner-ring communities, especially after
the 1967 riots. Certain suburbs, including East Cleveland and Warrensville
Heights, changed from predominately white to predominately black within a
decade.

Shaker Heights, however, has been able to maintain a relatively

stable racial composition for more than 30 years.

From 13 percent in 1968,

the current nonwhite population now stands at 29 percent.
Shaker Heights was developed in the 1920s by the Van Sweringen
brothers, who envisioned it as a model community designed around a rapid
transit line that would provide easy access to downtown Cleveland. The city
included housing for a wide range of income groups, with distinct
neighborhoods designed to provide intra-community mobility (see figure 1).

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Relatively modest houses on small tracts were built in the southern
neighborhoods of Ludlow, Lomond, and Moreland, which abut Cleveland, while
mansions were developed in the northern part of the city. As shown in table
1 , housing prices in Lomond are more comparable to those in the rest of the
eastern Cuyahoga County communities than to prices in the northern section of
Shaker Heights.
Before the courts struck down restrictive housing covenants in 1948,
blacks were banned from purchasing homes in Shaker Heights, as were Jews and
Catholics. When a black dentist moved into Ludlow in 1955, white residents
feared that the rapid racial change taking place in adjacent Cleveland
neighborhoods would also occur in their own community. Responding to the
proliferation of "for sale" signs, residents formed the Ludlow Community
Association in 1957 to counteract adverse real estate practices and to
encourage whites to buy homes in the area. These actions were the first of
their kind and received national attention.lo

In 1961, the association began

to make short-term loans to prospective white buyers.
Residents of Lomond responded similarly to integration. In 1963, a
community association was formed to promote the neighborhood, prospect for
white buyers, and make a limited number of loans to whites interested in
purchasing homes on blocks with heavy concentrations of blacks.

In 1967, the

Shaker Heights Housing Office was established with the financial support and

************
10

See "Ludlow: A Lesson in Integration," Reader's Digest, 1965.

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supervision of the City Council.and the Board of Education.

This city-wide

organization took over many of the marketing and prospecting activities
heretofore conducted by the community groups.
The success of these early efforts to maintain racial integration in
Shaker Heights was mixed.

Moreland, historically the most blue-collar

neighborhood, became predominately black by 1980. Ludlow, on the other hand,
has remained stable since the late 1960s (averaging about 50 percent black).
Lomond claimed the greatest success in attracting white homebuyers, with sales
to whites rising from 49 percent in 1966 to 68 percent in 1969.11
In the mid-1980s, however, Lomond was perceived as becoming
predominately nonwhite, particularly in the southwestern areas adjoining the
Moreland neighborhood and Cleveland. Racial data collected by the Shaker
Heights Housing Office--whichmonitors racial occupancy at the house level-confirmed this trend.

In just four years (1982-86), the percentage of

nonwhite residents in the western half of Lomond shifted from 40 percent to 65
percent, while in the eastern half of the neighborhood that measure grew from
29 percent to 34 percent.

As shown in table 2, housing sales to whites

declined from 81 percent of sales in 1981 to 47 percent in 1985. Housing
prices, which appreciated 14 percent between 1980 and 1985 in the rest of the
eastside communities, were flat in Lomond.
The Shaker Heights Housing Office, concerned about maintaining the
long-term integration of the southern Shaker neighborhoods, launched the FFSH
in 1986. Under the program, white homebuyers in the integrated neighborhoods

************
11

See Alfred and Marcoux (1970).

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of the city are eligible for low-interest loans of up to $5,000, while black
homebuyers are eligible for similar loans if they buy in the suburb's
predominately white areas. Because the predominately white neighborhoods
consist of luxury homes while the integrated neighborhoods consist of
relatively modest homes, the program has effectively been directed toward
maintaining white demand, particularly in Lomond. Of the 75 loans made by
1990, only four went to blacks. Of the remaining 71 loans, 66 were applied to
home purchases in Lomond. City officials defend this imbalance by noting that
they support a regional program (the East Suburban Council for Open
Communities, formed in 1983) that extends loans to black homeseekers in six
formerly all-white communities east of the inner-ring suburbs.
FFSH directors have varied the loan amounts for which purchasers are
eligible over time and over specific sections of Lomond. As shown in figure
2, loan amounts were initially set at $3,000 for the entire neighborhood. In
January 1987, this figure was increased to $4,000 for houses in the western
section. The figure for western Lomond was increased again in April 1990, to
$5,000, but the boundary was shifted west.

I use this variation in loan

amounts over time and across sections of Lomond in an effort to distinguish
the financial impact of the loan amounts from the fixed effects resulting from
establishment of the program.

3. Data and Estimation
The econometric analysis presented here attempts to identify
three separate potential effects of the FFSH loan program: 1) the direct
effect on racial composition, 2) the fixed impact of the initiation of the

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program on housing prices, and 3) the influence of varying the subsidy rate
over time .
The first effect--theimpact of the FFSH on racial composition and
the impact of racial composition on housing prices--ties this work to other
studies of race and housing. I also look for evidence that the racial

.

discount (premium) for housing prices within Lomond differs from that of the
surrounding communities. The second effect measures whether the mere
existence of a subsidy program--with its accompanying potential impact on
expectations of future racial composition--hasan influence on house prices.
The third effect measures the importance of the subsidy level itself on
housing values.

The present value of the subsidies is small. The $5,000 loan

has a value of $800 to $1,200, depending on the discount rate used.12
Nonetheless, for liquidity-constrainedhomebuyers, particularly first-time
purchasers, the loan can provide an important financial incentive.
In practice, disentangling the fixed effect of the program from the
subsidy effect is difficult. I rely on the variation in loan amounts over
time and across streets to identify the latter. (I also identify transactions
that use the subsidy.) To examine the fixed effect of the program, I compare
appreciation in Lomond to that in the surrounding communities to ascertain
whether a shift in prices coincided with the initiation of the program.

************
12

Discount rates of 10 percent to 18 percent were used.

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Estimation Approach
Hedonic models focus on markets in which a generic commodity can
embody varying amounts of a vector of attributes. In empirical implementation
of these models, one major focus is to estimate how the price of one unit of
the commodity varies with the set of attributes it possesses. Another focus
of study is to estimate demand and supply functions for attributes of the
product.
However, as Epple (1987), Follain and Jimenez (1985), and others
point out, some seemingly natural specifications of the stochastic structure
of hedonic models prove to be incompatible with their equilibrium
conditions.13 Epple shows that careful specification of the sources of
error and orthogonality conditions permits identification and estimation of a
hedonic model, but the requisite orthogonality conditions prove to be
relatively strong. To be satisfied in practice, they require an exhaustive
set of product, demander, and supplier characteristics. The problems are
particularly acute for estimation of demand and supply equation parameters.
In hedonic applications, however, the price equation is typically
estimated by ordinary least squares, with the supply of attributes and tastes
of consumers assumed exogenous. These estimates are consistent if 1) price

13
The literature on applying hedonic price models to housing markets is
lengthy. Rosen (1974) first proposed an estimation procedure to surmount the
problem posed by the absence of observable prices for attributes. His
suggestion sparked a number of applications, including Murray (1978), Witte,
Sumka, and Erekson (1979), Harrison and Rubinfeld (1978), Linneman (1980),
Ellickson (1981), and Halvorsen and Pollakowski (1981). Criticism of these
applications appears in Brown and Rosen (1982), Epple (1987), Bartik (1987),
Diamond and Smith (1985), and Follain and Jimenez (1985). Alternative
estimation strategies are discussed in Kanemoto (1988), Kanemoto and Nakamura
(1986), and Quigley (1982).

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and product characteristics are measured without error, 2) no product
characteristics are omitted, and 3) the error term in the price equation is
uncorrelated with the error vector in the demand equations. Due to data
limitations, I do not attempt to estimate the parameters of the demand
equations, but instead focus on estimating the hedonic price equation under
the above assumptions. The high-quality price and racial composition data,
extensive set of house characteristics, and ability to control for fixed
neighborhood effects reduce the probability of bias due to measurement error
or omitted variables. Moreover, this approach allows my results to be
compared with those of previous studies of race and housing.
With respect to estimating the impact of the loan program on racial
composition, data limitations again prohibit estimating a full structural
model of whiteblack demand and housing supply. Therefore, I use a logit
model and estimate two reduced-form equations of the probability that a house
will be sold (purchased) by a white. The independent variables are assumed to
capture the implicit structural relationships of both white and black selling
and buying propensities. This approach follows Galster (1990), who used
reduced-form equations to model racial change at the census-tract level. The
results, however, should be interpreted cautiously as an econometric
characterization of a housing market, not as estimates of housing demand.

Data

I obtained data on all single-family home purchases in Shaker Heights
and in a control group of surrounding communities for the years 1983 through
1989. I then merged this information with detailed data on house quality

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acquired from property tax records.

The data were generously provided by

Thomas Bier of Cleveland State University, who has done extensive research on
housing in Cleveland and whose staff at the school's Urban Studies Center has
invested heavily in cleaning up the information and checking for accuracy.
The 87 quality variables listed in table 3 are unusually detailed for a
housing study of this nature.

In addition to standard measures of lot size

and living area, this study includes ten measures of exterior wall
construction, six measures of housing style, eight measures of construction
quality, five measures of roof style, and six measures of roofing material.
I also obtained estimates on the racial composition of neighborhoods
at the census-tract level. The Cuyahoga Plan, a local fair-housing
organization, publishes yearly estimates of racial change in Cleveland and its
environs based on births and deaths at area hospitals.

I applied their

estimated rates of change to the 1980 census figures for nonwhite residency in
order to obtain annual estimates of racial composition for each census tract.
Within the Lomond neighborhood (which spans parts of three census tracts),
street-by-streetestimates of racial composition were obtained using data
compiled by the Shaker Heights Housing Office on the race of each homeowner,
as well as on buyers and sellers.

4. Effect of the FFSH on Racial Com~osition
Since its initiation in May 1986, the FFSH has made approximately 20
loans per year, principally for purchases in Lomond.

Simple statistics

support the position that the loan program has stabilized racial composition
there. As shown in table 2, sales to whites, which bottomed out at 47 percent

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in 1985, rose to 70 percent in 1988 and stood at 59 percent in 1989. Racial
composition in the eastern and northern sections of Lomond has stabilized at
34.9 percent and 36 percent nonwhite, respectively, since 1986. Western
Lomond has continued to increase in nonwhite racial composition, but at a
slower pace, shifting only four percentage points between 1986 and 1989
(compared to a 20 percent shift in the previous three years). 14
To examine the effect of the FFSH on racial composition more
systematically, I use a logit probability model to explain the likelihood that
house transactions within Lomond will involve 1) a white seller and 2) a
white buyer.15 The basic form of the model is shown in equation (1).

where

Pi

-

the probability that a seller (buyer) is white,

NONWHITE%it = percent nonwhite population on a particular street in year t,

QUALITYi

- a vector of house-quality variables for house i,

14 Street-by-streetdata on racial composition are available from the author
upon request.
15

For a discussion of the logit model, see Pindyck and Rubinfeld (1981).

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LOMONDYRt

=

a trend variable equal to zero in 1980,..., equal to nine in 1989,

i

- 1,...,317 single-family house transactions in Lomond, and

t

=

1980,....,1989.

I estimate equation (1) for sales (and buys) using maximum-likelihood
nonlinear estimation with the SAS LOGIST procedure for 317 sales in Lomond
between 1980 and 1989.16 The sample is limited to single-family sales for
which the race of both the buyer and the seller was known by the Shaker
Heights Housing Office. Various forms of the specification are estimated,
including entering NONWHITE% as a continuous variable, entering NONWHITE% and
NONWHITE% squared, and breaking NONWHITE% into a set of dummy variables for
different categories of NONWHITE%. In the latter specification, I create a
set of dummy variables (NONWHITE%lO-20,NONWHITE%20-30, ......,
NONWHITE%80-90) that equal one if the percentage of nonwhites on the street is
between 10 and 20 percent, 20 and 30 percent,...., 80 and 90 percent,
respectively. I report these results because they allow for a more flexible
model than does just including NONWHITE% linearly. The qualitative nature of
the results is the same for all specifications.

************
16

See Harrell (1980).

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I first estimate equation (1) with the vector QUALITYi variables
(shown in table 3) included. With a few exceptions, such as ATTACHED GARAGE
and AIRCONDITION, these variables are statistically insignificant. A joint
test of the variables rejects the hypothesis that they have explanatory power
for white sales and white buys. This is not surprising. The Lomond housing
stock was built by one developer, so housing characteristics, lot size, and
construction quality are homogeneous throughout the neighborhood. Although
depreciation may vary with race (income), Shaker Heights has a stringent
point-of-sale inspection that insures adequate maintenance. What does vary
across the neighborhood is racial composition. When the QUALITYi variables
are included, the estimated coefficients for the NONWHITES variables are
little changed. Their statistical significance, however, declines from the 99
percent confidence level to the 90 percent confidence level. For reasons of
space, I report the regression results that exclude the QUALITYi measures,
although the qualitative nature of the findings remains the same.
Model 1 includes a dependent variable, WHITESELL, that equals one if
a housing transaction involves a white seller. This was the case in 242 of

the 317 sales in Lomond observed over the 1980-89 period.

The results are

reported in column 1 of table 4. The coefficients for NONWHITE%lO-20 through
NONWHITE%60-70 are all significant at the 95 percent confidence level,
although they are declining in absolute value. This implies that the
probability of sale by a white decreases with the white racial composition of
the neighborhood. (NONWHITE%80-90 is the omitted category.) This is as
expected, since the population of potential white sellers also declines.

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A more useful interpretation of these results is illustrated in
figure 3. For a street that is 85 percent white, the probability of sale by a
white is 92 percent. For streets that are 55 percent and 25 percent white,
the respective probabilities of sale by a white are 80 percent and 65 percent.
These results reflect two possible influences. First, white homeowners within
Lomond are potentially more mobile than black homeowners and are thus more
likely to sell.

(Conventional wisdom at the Shaker Heights Housing Office

states that whites in Lomond tend to be either young families purchasing their
first homes, upwardly mobile professionals, or transferees.)

Second, the high

probability of white sales relative to racial composition suggests white
flight.
I assume that the white propensity to sell is unaffected by the FFSH
and contrast the results from Model 1 with the probability of white purchases.
(Relaxing this assumption is an area for future research, which should perhaps
include joint estimation of the probabilities of white sales and buys.)
Model 2 estimates the probability that a white will purchase a
house in Lomond. As in Model 1, a trend variable is included. However, Model
2 also incorporates a shift variable, LOANYR, that increases by one for each
year following the initiation of the FFSH loan program.

....,

(LOANYR=l in 1986,

LOANYR-4 in 1989.) As with Model 1, the coefficients on NONWHITE%lO-20

through NONWHITE%60-70 are statistically significant and decline in absolute
value. As shown in figure 4, the probability of a buy by a white decreases as
the nonwhite racial composition of the street increases. In 1985, the year
immediately preceding establishment of the FFSH, the probability of a white
buying a house on an 85-percent-whitestreet was 64 percent, while the

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probability of a white buying a house on a 25-percent-whitestreet was only 18
percent.
The probability of whites buying in Lomond steadily decreased between
1980 and 1986. The coefficient for MMONDYR is -0.1693 and is significant at
the 95 percent confidence level, This downward trend reversed in 1986,
coinciding with the initiation of the FFSH. The estimated coefficient on
LOANYR is 0.4080 with a standard error of 0.1624 and is significant at the 95
percent confidence level.
To further explore the effect of the FFSH, I interact LOANYR with
three variables measuring the degree of nonwhite composition. Model 3
includes HIGHNW-1 for streets with a 70-100 percent nonwhite composition,
MODNW-1 for streets with a 30-70 percent nonwhite composition, and LOWNW-1 for
streets with a 0-30 percent nonwhite composition. Results suggest that the
FFSH has a significant effect (at the 95 percent confidence level) on white
purchases on streets that are 30-70 percent nonwhite. The results for HIGHNW
and LOWNW are positive, but significant only at the 90 percent and 80 percent
confidence levels, respectively. (Relatively few transactions were observed
in these areas.)
To interpret these results, I again return to figure 3. Prior to the
initiation of the FFSH, the probability of a white buy was lower than the
probability of a white sell for all levels of nonwhite street composition. The
vertical distance between the two functions can be interpreted as a measure of

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the pace of racial change.17

For streets that are 25 percent nonwhite,

whites comprised 82 percent of the sales but only 58 percent of the buys,
suggesting that a net 24 percent of the transactions involved a change of
ownership from white to black.

For streets that are 75 percent nonwhite, the

white sale-to-buyratio was 65 to 18, suggesting that 47 percent of the sales
involved a racial change.
Figure 4 illustrates the effect of the FFSH on white buys as
estimated in Model 3. Upon initiation of the loan program in 1986, the
probability of white buys shifted up, but still remained below the probability
of white sells. For a street with 55 percent nonwhites, the probability
shifted from 42 to 51 percent. By 1989, the probability of white buys
exceeded the probability of white sells for streets with nonwhite composition
of 30 percent or less. For a street with 55 percent nonwhites, the
probability of a white buy rose to 75 percent, a 33-percentage-pointincrease
from pre-FFSH levels. For streets with a high number of nonwhite residents,
however, the probability of white buys remained low.
An alternative measure of the loan program's impact enters the
dollar amount for which a house is eligible into the specification (rather
than a shift variable that followed the initiation of the program) and yields
qualitatively similar results. The statistical fit, however, is not as good
as the results reported here. This is consistent with the findings reported

17
This assumes that the two functions are independent, an area for future
research.

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in section 5, which suggest that the fixed effect of the loan program on
expectations of racial composition dominates the financial impact of the
subsidies.
In short, these estimates suggest that the FFSH had a significant
positive impact on the probability of white purchases in Lomond. Racial
composition was stabilized in areas with 0-30 percent nonwhites, and white
demand was significantly increased in areas with 30-70 percent nonwhites. The
estimated impact on high-minority areas (more than 70 percent nonwhite) was
positive but smaller.

5.

Effect of the FFSH on House Prices
Following previous studies on race and housing, I estimate a simple

hedonic price equation that explains transaction prices as a function of house
quality, neighborhood racial composition, and neighborhood fixed effects. The
basic form of the regression is shown in equation (2).

where i

-

1,....,26,166 transactions and t

-

83-89. 18

18
Note that OTHSHAKER83 and COUNTY83 are set equal to zero to avoid perfect
colinearity.

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PRICE is the transaction price of the 26,166 sales observed between 1983 and
1989 in the eastside communities selected for the study.l9 NONWHITE% is the
racial composition reported in the census tract. QUALITY is the vector of
house-quality measures. FIXED is a vector of census-tract dummy variables.
LOMOND, COUNTY, and OTHSHAKER are annual dummy variables that measure
appreciation in Lomond, other communities, and other Shaker Heights areas,
respectively.
I enter measures of loan eligibility into the specification in order
to ascertain whether the market intervention systematically changed
transaction prices. These measures include LOAN, which equals the amount of
loan for which the house is eligible, LOMONDYR, which measures the trend in
Lomond house prices beginning in 1983, and LOANYR, which measures any shift in
appreciation coinciding with the initiation of the loan program in 1986.
Median prices in Lomond remained flat between 1982 and 1985, while the
rest of the eastside communities experienced an average appreciation rate of
10 percent. Prices in Lomond jumped 7 percent in 1986 upon initiation of the
loan program, however, and had caught up with those of the other communities
by 1988.
To control for the impact of the loan program on housing prices more
systematically, I estimate equation (2) controlling for racial composition,
house quality, and neighborhood fixed effects. I first estimate the model
excluding variables related to the loan program. Results are shown in

19
The communities chosen were the City of Cleveland neighborhoods
contiguous to the eastern suburbs, and all of the suburbs extending eastward
to Interstate 271, the circumferential highway.

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table 5 .
Model 4 excludes the racial composition variables but includes the
quality variables and neighborhood fixed effects. Parameter estimates for the
quality variables are contained in appendix A.~'

The quality variables in

general have parameter estimates of the expected sign and of reasonable
magnitude. AGE has a negative and significant effect on prices.

LIVING AREA

and LOT SIZE have positive and significant effects. FULL BATHS and HALF BATHS
do not have significant effects, but PLUMBING FIXTURES does.

FIREPLACES, AIR

CONDITIONING, HARDWOOD FLOORS, and SWIMMING POOL have the expected positive
signs and are statistically significant. The CONSTRUCTION GRADE and CONDITION
variables are all statistically significant and are ranked in the expected
order.
The appreciation in Lomond house prices that began in 1986 and
that is seen in the simple statistics appears in the LOMONDt dummy variables
as well.

(The omitted neighborhood dummy variable is the Shaker Heights

census tract immediately north of Lomond, in 1983.) Prices, which were 11
percent below the control neighborhood in 1983, climbed 19 percent between
1985 and 1989. Significant appreciation also occurred in the rest of the city
over the same period, however. Because the market in northern Shaker Heights
is substantially different in terms of price level and house characteristics,
appreciation rates in LOMOND and OTHSHAKER may not be comparable. Although

20
Parameter estimates for the fixed neighborhood effects are not reported
but are available upon request.

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the appreciation in Lomond began in 1985 upon initiation of the loan program,
an alternative interpretation is that excess demand for OTHSHAKER houses
pulled up the Lomond prices.
Model 5 adds variables on racial composition. NONWHITES is the racial
composition for houses outside of Lomond (and equals zero within Lomond).
NONWHITES LOMOND is the racial composition measured at the street level for
houses within Lomond (and equals zero outside of Lomond). The parameter
estimates for the two variables are statistically significant and remarkably
similar, at -0.1574 and -0.1697 for NONWHITES and NONWHITE% LOMOND,
respectively, with t-statistics of 2.65 and 2.16. This suggests that a 10percentage-point shift in racial composition toward nonwhite reduces prices
1.6 percent .outside of Lomond and 1.7 percent within Lomond. To the extent
that the FFHS stabilized racial composition, the program seems to have had a
significant direct effect on housing prices.
Model 6 omits the neighborhood fixed effects (but includes the quality
variables).

The estimated coefficient on NONWHITE% doubles to -0.3372 from

results seen in Model 4, confirming Chamber's evidence that unobserved
neighborhood effects significantly influence the white/nonwhite differential.
The estimated impact of the loan program is reported in table 6.21
Note that the specifications include a trend variable (LOMONDYR) rather than

21

Except as noted, estimated quality and year effects for Models 7 through

11 change little from those reported in table 4 and are available from the
author.

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yearly fixed effects (LOMOND83-LOMOND89). Constraining appreciation in Lomond
to this trend allows for the effect of the FFSH to be estimated from variation
in the loan amounts over time and across streets within Lomond.
Model 7 includes the variable M A N , which equals the amount of loan
for which the house is eligible (in thousands of dollars).

The estimated

coefficient is 0.0213 with a t-statistic of 1.48 and is not significant at
conventional levels. Model 8 interacts loan amounts with dummy variables for
high, moderate, and low nonwhite racial composition. The coefficient for
LOAN*MODNW is 0.0214 with a t-statistic of 1.63, suggesting that the loan
program has a stronger impact in integrated areas. This result can be
interpreted to mean that $1,000 of loan eligibility raises the sale price by
2.14 percent. With a median house price of $73,000 in 1986, a $3,000 loan
thus raised prices by $4,687, suggesting that the loan program has large
(perhaps implausible) spillover effects. However, the t-statistic of the
coefficient falls just below the 90 percent confidence critical value of
1.645. We now turn to sorting out the fixed effect of the program from the
impact of the loan value.
Model 9 includes MANYR to measure any shift in appreciation
coinciding with initiation of the FFSH. The estimated coefficient is 0.0372
with a t-statistic of 1.27, suggesting no significant overall shift.
Interacting MANYR with the racial composition dummies in Model 10, however,
reveals that the initiation of the FFSH had a significant impact on house
price appreciation in the moderately nonwhite areas, where prices rose 5.8

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percent above trend. The coefficient for LOANYR*MODNW is 0.0582 with a
t-statistic of 2.25. This result is consistent with the significant increase
in the probability of white purchases in the same areas noted in section 4.
Finally, I distinguish the fixed effect of the FFSH on
appreciation from the financial effect of the loan amounts. To do this, I
enter both the LOAN* and the LOANYR* variables in Model 11. The coefficients
for LOAN* are all insignificant. The coefficient for LOANYR*MODNW, however,
is 0.0471 with a t-statistic of 1.59. Although this figure is just below the
90 percent critical value, I interpret these results to mean that the fixed
effect of the FFSH had a significant impact on house price appreciation that
dominated the financial effect of the loan amounts. The program was effective
on integrated streets with a nonwhite composition between 30 and 70 percent,
but no significant impact was seen in low- (0-30 percent) or high- (70-100
percent) minority areas.

6 . Conclusion
This paper estimates the impact of race-based housing subsidies
on racial composition and housing prices within the Lomond area of Shaker
Heights. Before the FFSH was established in May 1986, Lomond was undergoing
significant racial change. Results of this study suggest that the loan
program has had a stabilizing effect on the neighborhood's racial composition,
particularly on streets with fewer than 70% nonwhite residents.
Prior to May 1986, housing prices in Lomond had lagged those of
surrounding communities. Upon initiation of the FFSH, however, prices

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increased significantly in areas with a 30-70 percent nonwhite population.
The results further suggest that the direct fixed effect of initiating the
program dominated any financial effect of capitalizing loans of relatively
small present value. In sum, prointegrative subsidies in integrated
neighborhoods can directly affect racial composition and appear to have
important spillover effects (potentially related to expectations of future
racial composition) that raise housing prices.

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References

Alfred, Stephen J. and Charles R. Marcoux, "Impact of a Community Association
on Integrated Suburban Housing Patterns," Cleveland State Law Review, 19
(January 1970), pp. 90-99.
Bartik, Timothy, "The Estimation of Demand Parameters in Hedonic Price
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Brown, James N. and Harvey S. Rosen, "On the Estimation of Structural Hedonic
Price Models," Econometrica, 50, 3 (May 1982), pp. 765-768.
Chambers, Daniel N., "The Racial Housing Price Differential and Racially
Transitional Neighborhoods," National Association of Realtors, unpublished
working paper, December 1988.
Damerall, R., Trium~hin a White Suburb. New York: William Morrow, 1968.
Diamond, Douglas B. and Barton A. Smith, "Simultaneity in the Market for
Housing Characteristics," Journal of Urban Economics, 17 (1985), pp. 280-292.
Ellickson, Bryan, "An Alternative Test of the Hedonic Theory of Housing
Markets," Journal of Urban Economics, 9 (1981) pp. 56-79.
Epple, Dennis, "Hedonic Prices and Implicit Markets: Estimating Demand and
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Farley, R., H. Schuman, S. Bianchi, D. Colasanto, and S. Hatchett, "Chocolate
City, Vanilla Suburbs: Will the Trend toward Racially Separate Communities
Continue?" Social Science Research, 7 (1978), pp. 319-344.
Follain, James R. and Emmanuel Jimenez, "Estimating the Demand for Housing
Characteristics," Regional Science of Urban Economics, 15 (1985), pp. 77-107.
Follain, James R. and Stephen Malpezzi, "Dissecting Housing Value and Rent:
Estimates of Hedonic Indexes for Thirty-Nine Large SMSAs," Contract Paper
249-17. Washington D.C.: The Urban Institute, 1980.
Galster, George C., "Black and White Preferences for Neighborhood Racial
Composition," American Real Estate Urban Economic Association Journal, 10
(1982), pp. 39-66.

, "Neighborhood Racial Change, Segregationist Sentiments,
and Affirmative Marketing Policies," Journal of Urban Economics, 27 (May
1990), pp. 344-361.

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Guest, A. and J. Zuiches, "Another Look at Residential Turnover in Urban
Neighborhoods," American Journal of Socioloav, 77 (1971), pp. 457-467.
Halvorsen, Robert and Henry 0. Pollakowski, "Choice of Functional Forms for
Hedonic Price Equations," Journal of Urban Economics (1981), pp. 37-49.
Harrell, Frank, in Patti S. Reinhardt, ed., SAS Suv~lementalLibrarv User's
Guide, Cary, North Carolina: SAS Institute, 1980, pp. 83-102.
Harrison, David and Daniel L. Rubinfeld, "Hedonic Housing Prices and the
Demand for Clean Air," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, 5
(1978), pp. 81-102.
Husock, Howard, "Integration Incentives in Suburban Cleveland," Kennedy School
of Government Case Program, Harvard University, 1989.
Kanemoto, Yoshigutsu, "Hedonic Prices and the Benefits of Public Projects,"
Econometrica, 56 (July 1988), pp. 981-989.
and Ryohei Nakamura, "A New Approach to the Estimation of
Structural Equations in Hedonic Models," Journal of Urban Economics, 19
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King, A. Thomas and Peter Mieszkowski, "Racial Discrimination, Segregation,
and the Price of Housing," Journal of Political Economy, 81 (1973), pp.
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Mieszkowski, Peter, "Studies of Prejudice and Discrimination in Urban Housing
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Rosen, Sherwin, "Hedonic Prices and Implicit Markets: Product Differentiation
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Appendix A
Parameter Estimates For Quality ~ e a s u r e s ~

(4)

AGE OF HOUSE

(5

Fixed
Effects
Omitted
(6)

- LOG

LOG LIVING AREA SQF
LOG FRONTAGE LOT
LOG LOT SIZE
GARAGE CAPACITY
GARAGE SIZE SQF (1000'S)
NUMBER OF ROOMS
NUMBER OF BEDROOMS
NUMBER OF FULL BATHS
NUMBER OF HALF BATHS
PLUMBING FIXTURES
FIREPLACES
BSMNT SIZE SQF (1000'S)
FNSHD BSMNT SQF (1000'S)
NUMBER OF PORCHES
TERRACED DECK SQF (1000'S)

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Appendix A (cont.)
Parameter Estimates For Quality ~ e a s u r e s ~

(4)

(5

Fixed
Effects
Omitted
(6

OPEN PORCH SQF (1000's)
ENCLOSED PORCH SQF (1000's)
BAD VIEW

GOOD VIEW
GREAT VIEW
TRIANGLE LOT
TRAPEZOID LOT
PARALLELOGRAM LOT
IRREGULAR LOT
ROLLING LOT
HI/LEVEL LOT
HI/SLOPING LOT
LIMITED TRAFFIC
MOD/HEAW TRAFFIC
EXT/HEAW TRAFFIC
SIDEWALK

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Appendix A (cont.)
Parameter Estimates For Quality ~ e a s u r e s ~

(4)

(5)

Fixed
Effects
Omitted
(6)

RANCH
BUNGALOW
SPLIT LEVEL
BI LEVEL
CONTEMPORARY
CONSTR.

GRADE AA

CONSTR.

GRADE A+

CONSTR.

GRADE A

CONSTR.

GRADE B+

CONSTR.

GRADE B

CONSTR.

GRADE C

CONSTR.

GRADE D

CONDITION BAD
CONDITION FAIR

CONDITION GOOD
CONDITION EXCELLENT

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Appendix A (cont.)
Parameter Estimates For Quality ~ e a s u r e s ~

(4)

(5)

Fixed
Effects
Omitted
(6)

EXT. WALLS ALUMINUM
EXT . WALLS BRICK
EXT. WALLS FRAME/BRICK
EXT. WALLS STUCCO
EXT. WALLS BRICK/STUCCO
EXT. WALLS COMPOSITE/SIDING
EXT. WALLS ASBESTOS/SIDING
EXT . WALLS STONE
EXT. WALLS CONCRETE BLOCK
HIP ROOF STYLE
GAMBREL ROOF STYLE

MANSARD ROOF STYLE
FLAT ROOF STYLE
SLATE ROOF
TILE ROOF
WOOD SHAKE ROOF

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Appendix A (cont.)
Parameter Estimates For Quality ~ e a s u r e s ~

(4)

(5

Fixed
Effects
Omitted
(6)

COMPOSITION ROOF
METAL ROOF
HARDWOOD 1ST FLOOR
HARDWOOD 2ND FLOOR
PANELING 1ST FLOOR
PANELING 2ND FLOOR
FINISHED ATTIC
STEAM HEAT
HEAT PUMP
AIR CONDITIONING
SLAB CONSTRUCTION/NO BSMNT
CRAWL SPACE/NO BSMNT
ATTACHED GARAGE
SWIMMING POOL

a. Estimated coefficients (standard errors).
Source: Author's calculations.

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Table 1
Median House Prices ( $ ) , 1976-89

Year

Eastern
Cuyahoga
County

Other
Shaker

Lomond

Source: Cuyahoga County Recorder's Office.

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Table 2
Racial Composition of Lomond Sales

Year

Percent of Sales
To Whites To Blacks

Total

Source: Shaker Heights Housing Office.

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Table 3
Independent Variables, Quality Measures
Variable

Mean

Std. Dev.

AGE OF HOME
LIVING AREA SQF
FRONT FOOTAGE FT
LOT SIZE SQF
NUMBER OF ROOMS
NUMBER OF BEDROOMS
NUMBER OF BATHROOMS
NUMBER OF HALF BATHS
PLUMBING FIXTURES
GARAGE CAPACITY
GARAGE SIZE SQF
NUMBER OF PORCHES
TERRACED DECK SQF
OPEN PORCH SQF
ENCLOSED PORCH SQF
BASEMENT SIZE SQF
FINISHED BASEMENT SQF
NUMBER OF FIREPLACES
BAD VIEW
GOOD VIEW
GREAT VIEW
TRIANGLE LOT
TRAPEZOID LOT
PARALLELOGRAM LOT
IRREGULAR LOT
ROLLING LOT
HI/LEVEL LOT
HI/SLOPING LOT
LIMITED TRAFFIC
MOD/HEAVY TRAFFIC
EXT/HEAVY TRAFFIC
SIDEWALK
RANCH
BUNGALOW
SPLIT LEVEL
BI LEVEL
CONTEMPORARY
CONSTRUCTION GRADE AA
CONSTRUCTION GRADE A+
CONSTRUCTION GRADE A
CONSTRUCTION GRADE B+
CONSTRUCTION GRADE B

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Table 3 (Cont.)

Variable
CONSTRUCTION GRADE C
CONSTRUCTION GRADE D
CONDITION BAD
CONDITION FAIR
CONDITION GOOD
CONDITION EXCELLENT
EXT. WALLS ALUMINUM
EXT. WALLS BRICK
EXT. WALLS FRAME/BRICK
EXT. WALLS STUCCO
EXT. WALLS BRICK/STUCCO
EXT. WALLS COMPOSITE/SIDING
EXT. WALLS ASBESTOS/SIDING
EXT. WALLS STONE
EXT. WALLS CONCRETE BLOCK
HIP ROOF STYLE
GAMBREL ROOF STYLE
MANSARD ROOF STYLE
FLAT ROOF STYLE
SLATE ROOF
TILE ROOF
WOOD SHAKE ROOF
COMPOSITE ROOF
METAL ROOF
HARDWOOD 1ST FLOOR
HARDWOOD 2ND FLOOR
PANELING 1ST FLOOR
PANELING 2ND FLOOR
FINISHED ATTIC
STEAM HEAT
HEAT PUMP
AIRCONDITION
SLAB CONSTRUCTION/NO BASEMENT
CRAWL SPACE/NO BASEMENT
ATTACHED GARAGE
SWIMMING POOL

suma

Mean

Std. Dev.

4,916
127
1,388
2,721
6,948
664
7,360
6,007
691
162
125
31
424
38
13
2,648
281
46
63
2,828
396
545
87
5
24,553
15,225
34
389
7,796
2,949
117
4,490
1,187
280
7,898
174

a. Reported for 0/1 dummy variables. Total number of observations equals
26,166. Omitted characteristics include NORMAL VIEW, REGULAR LOT, NORMAL
TRAFFIC, COLONIAL STYLE, CONSTRUCTION GRADE C+, CONDITION NORMAL, EXT. WALLS
FRAME, PITCH ROOF STYLE, AND ASPHALT SHINGLE ROOF.
Source: Cuyahoga County property tax records.

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Table 4
Logit Model Estimates: Probability of White Buyer/Seller in ~ o m o n d ~
Dependent Var.-1
if Sold bv White

LOANYR*HIGHNW
(70-100% nonwhite)
LOANYR*MODNW
(30-70% nonwhite)
LOANYR*LOWNW
(0-30% nonwhite)
LOMONDYR
(1980-0,...,1989=9)

Dependent Var.=l
if Bought bv White

...
...
...
...
...
...

...
...

0.4524
(0.2696)

...
...
...

...

0.3578
(0.1597)
0.7029
(0.4771)

-0.0157
(0.0500)

-0.1693
(0.0835)

-0.1587
(0.0799)

317
242
75
19.87

317
178
139
39.76

317
178
139
37.51

INTERCEPT
No. of Observations
No. of Dependent Var.-1
No. of Dependent Var.=O
Model Chi-squared

a. Estimated coefficients (standard errors).
Note: NONWHITE%80-90 is the omitted category. MANYR is the age of the loan
program and equals 0 before 1986, equals 1 in 1986,..., equals 4 in 1989.
HIGHNW-1 if street is 70-100% nonwhite. MODNW-1 if street is 30-70% nonwhite.
L O W 1 if street is 0-30% nonwhite.
Source: Author's calculations.
www.clevelandfed.org/research/workpaper/index.cfm

Table 5
Hedonic House Price Regression: Controlling for
Racial Composition, House Quality, and Neighborhood Fixed ~ f f e c t s ~
Fixed
Effects
Omitted

00

www.clevelandfed.org/research/workpaper/index.cfm

Table 5 (Cont.)
Hedonic House Price Regression: Controlling for
Racial Composition, House Quality, and Neighborhood Fixed ~ f f e c t s ~
Fixed
Effects
Omitted

000

INTERCEPT

No. of Observations
Mean Dependent Var.
S.S .E.
S.E.R.
R-squared
a. Estimated coefficients (standard errors).
Note: Parameter estimates for quality measures are reported in appendix A.
Source: Author's calculations.

www.clevelandfed.org/research/workpaper/index.cfm

Table 6
Hedonic Price Regression: Controlling For
Impact of Loan programa

LOMONDYR
(1983-0,....1989-6)

0.0222 0.0233 0.0124 0.0008 -0.0022
(0.0140) (0.0142) (0.0229) (0.0202) (0.0208)

LOAN ($1,000)
LOAN*HIGHNW
(70-100% nonwhite)
LOAN*MODNW
(30-70% nonwhite)
LOAN*LOWNW
(0-30% nonwhite)
LOANYR
LOANYR*HIGHNW
(0-30% nonwhite)
LOANYR*MODNW
(30-70% nonwhite)
LOANYR*LOWNW
(70-100% nonwhite)
Observations
Mean Dependent Var.
R-squared
S.E.R
a.

26,166 26,166 26,166 26,166 26,166
11.0110 11.0110 11.0110 11.0110 11.0110
0.8277 0.8277 0.8277 0.8277 0.8277
0.2410 0.2410 0.2410 0.2410 0.2410

Estimated coefficients (standard errors).

-

Note: LOAN
$1,000 of loan eligibility. LOANYR is the age of the loan
program and equals 0 before 1986, equals 1 in 1986,.... equals 4 in 1989.
HIGHNW-1 if street is 70-100% nonwhite. MODNW=l if street is 30-70% nonwhite.
LOWNW-1 if street is 0-30% nonwhite. Parameter estimates for quality measures
and appreciation in COUNTY and OTHSHAKER are contained in an appendix
available from the author.
Source: Author's calculations.

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SHAKER HEIGHTS
CITY SCHOOL DISTRICT

0

Shaker Helghts city ~ c h o o ~ s
Boulevard Elementary K-4
Fernway Elementary K-4
Lomond Elementary K-4
Mercer Elementary K-4
Onaway Elementary K - 4
Woodbury Elementary 5-6
Shaker Heights Mlddle School 7-8
Shaker Heights High School 9-12

Falnnount Boulevard
*Courtland
oval

-University Parkway
Colby

,.

2

2

?
B

$

Shelburne

,,

e

z
m

Shelburne

calverton

$

S

Parnell

.

5

B

.G

Douglas

c

I

C

d

E

n
f

Brantley

Lyman
Circle

f,;
2 2

Stanford

4Inverness McCauley

.Laureldale

Shaker Boulevard

aa
q~ayettr
q~yronr

$
Y.

Oval

Sydenham
$0

B

WestChester
Byron
Rye

$

.Hardwick

-E-

Holmwood*

Duffield

Sulgrave Ovalb
4Wimbledon.

"

Hazelmere

d

&

Canterbury

9
'
9ffeo

Hermitage

Alrnar

Lomond
www.clevelandfed.org/research/workpaper/index.cfm

Figure 2
AVAILABILITY OF LOANS IN LOMOND: LOCATION AND AMOUNT
LOMOND NEIGHBORHOOD

Mav 1. 1986

-

December 31. 1986

Loan value was $3,000 for the
entire Lomond neighborhood.

January 1. 1987

-

March 31. 1989

Loan value remained at $3,000 for
purchases east of Palmerston Road
Loan value increased to $4,000for
purchases on Palmerston Road and
west (shaded region) .

April 1. 1989

-

Present

Loan value remained at $3,000 for all
purchases east of Normandy Road
(boundary moved from Palmerston Road
to Normandy Road) .
Loan value increased to $5,000 for
purchases on Normandy Road and west
(shaded region).

www.clevelandfed.org/research/workpaper/index.cfm

Figure 3

White ~uys/Sales in Lomond:
(No Loan Pmgmm)

Probability of
Buy (Sell) 1
by a White

0

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

10 0

% Nonwhite on Street

Source:

Author's calculations.

www.clevelandfed.org/research/workpaper/index.cfm

Figure 4

Probability of
Buy (Sell) I
by a White

White Buys/Sales in Lomond:
Loan Program Effect

% Nonwhite on Street
Source:

Author's calculations.

www.clevelandfed.org/research/workpaper/index.cfm