| Abstrakt: |
Sociologists and demographers have long been interested in the residential attainment of minority groups in metropolitan areas (Alba and Logan 1991, 1992, 1993; Logan and Alba 1993; Logan et. al. 1996; Logan and Leung 1996). Researchers have found that, net of individual characteristics such as income, acculturation, household composition, and age, whites tend to live in neighborhoods with higher median income and a larger proportion of whites than do Asians, Hispanics, or blacks (Logan et. al. 1996; Logan and Leung 1996). Whites also live in higher quality housing units than Hispanics and blacks and have higher rates of home-ownership than Asians, Hispanics, and blacks (Rosenbaum 1996). Despite this sizeable body of evidence, little is know about racial and ethnic differences in residential attainment among the elderly. This topic deserves attention for several reasons. First and foremost, most of the current work on the residential circumstances of the elderly focuses on continuing care and assisted and independent living communities. However, most elderly prefer to stay in their own homes and age in place. One's home is frequently the main source of wealth, and intergenerational transfers of wealth play an important part in perpetuating racial and ethnic inequality (Oliver and Shapiro 1995; Conley 1998). Neighborhood and housing quality can also help compensate for health declines in old age and this explains a portion of racial and ethnic differences in health and well-being among the elderly (Himes et. al. 1996; Krout and Wellington 1996; Wait and Hughes 1999; Balfour and Kaplan 2002; Cagney et al. 2005). These concerns, coupled with the aging of American society in general, make studying the elderly an important contribution to the residential attainment literature. Using data from the 2005 American Housing Survey (AHS), I plan to extend the attainment research agenda by focusing on racial and ethnic variations in residential attainment patterns among the elderly that age in place. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
