A neighborhood wealth gap

Joe Copeland

Joe Copeland Jul 1, 2025

Feb 6, 2018

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                <h1>A neighborhood wealth gap</h1>
                <h2><p>Middle-income black families are much more likely to live in low-income neighborhoods than middle-income whites, a new study shows. The New York Times reports that part of it is choice but much of it comes from the greater overall family wealth of white families built up over generations, providing the</p></h2>
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               <p>By <a href="/author/joe-copeland-crosscut-com/">Joe Copeland</a></p> 
              <p><time datetime="2025-02-04T05:00:00-08:00">Feb 6, 2018</time></p>
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            <p>Middle-income black families are much more likely to live in low-income neighborhoods than middle-income whites, a new study shows. The <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/25/upshot/middle-class-black-families-in-low-income-neighborhoods.html?_r=0&abt=0002&abg=0&ref=dev.cascadepbs.org">New York Times reports </a>that part of it is choice but much of it comes from the greater overall family wealth of white families built up over generations, providing the ability to make larger down payments on housing. Other recent studies have shown that children from higher-income neighborhoods gain life-long advantages. One good point: Western cities see much less of the gap; Seattle ranks among the 25 with the smallest differences by race.</p>
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Middle-income black families are much more likely to live in low-income neighborhoods than middle-income whites, a new study shows. The New York Times reports that part of it is choice but much of it comes from the greater overall family wealth of white families built up over generations, providing the ability to make larger down payments on housing. Other recent studies have shown that children from higher-income neighborhoods gain life-long advantages. One good point: Western cities see much less of the gap; Seattle ranks among the 25 with the smallest differences by race.

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By Joe Copeland

Joe Copeland is the former senior editor&nbsp;for Crosscut, where he has been an editor since 2010. Before that, he was an editorial writer and columnist for the Seattle P-I and editorial page edi