ABSTRACT
This chapter summarizes a basic framework for conceptualizing residential mobility and the housing search process. It explores the racial differences as measured by the length and extensiveness of search, the number and type of information sources used, and the like. The chapter describes experiences of racial steering reported by both black and white homebuyers. Three models are proposed that account for less efficiency and greater costs of search behavior for potential black homebuyers. The three models are contextual model, black adaptation model and overt discrimination model. The extent to which differences between black and white search experiences are accounted for by each of these models has significant policy implications. The comparative determinants of active search time for whites and blacks mirror in many respects the pattern of time spent prior to search. Housing unit characteristics are a stronger influence on the length of search than on time in preparation but again the pattern is different for blacks and whites.
