"Between 1940 and 1980, the rate of homeownership among African-American households increased by close to 40 percentage points. Most of this increase occurred in central cities. We show that rising black homeownership was facilitated by the filtering of the urban housing stock as white...

"The share of metropolitan residents living in central cities declined dramatically from 1950 to 2000. We show that, if not for a series of demographic factors - notably renewed immigration, delayed child bearing, and a decline in the share of households headed by veterans, who are eligible for...