Our Changing Community: Economic Mobility & Homeownership
Economic mobility is the change in individual or household income over time. Promoting economic mobility includes assuring that residents can continue to afford to both live and thrive in the service area. In order to lay the baseline from which to gauge economic mobility from, we consider the state of the households and economy of the Jefferson service area.
We explore income, education level, and employment as primary indicators of upward mobility. In the second half of the storymap we consider homeownership as the traditional tool of wealth building and upward mobility.
Limited economic opportunities, underfunded education, and depressed housing markets remain threats to wealth building, complicating traditional pathways to becoming upwardly mobile. While recognizing potential threats, we consider opportunities to increase economic mobility and collaboration in the service area.
Instructions
The following report includes many interactive maps. Interact with the maps to take a closer look at the data:
- Click on the map directly to see relevant data by geography
- Use the plus/minus buttons at the bottom right of maps to zoom
- Click the house to return to the default map view
- Click the arrow in the top right corner of the map to expand the viewing size of the map
- Some maps are presented as slides. Slide maps can be explored using the same features as above. Legends are accessible through the button on the bottom left hand side of slide maps.
Changing Economic Status in the Jefferson service area
While new population trends emerged from 2010-2020, many economic trends followed historic patterns. Inequities across identity and geography continue to grow across the Jefferson service area in terms of income, education, and homeownership.
Promoting economic mobility has long been a goal of the service area, but often that story is told as a critique of less-resourced communities. Data trends reviewed through a systems lens offer clarity regarding disparate economic outcomes.
Homeownership in the Jefferson service area: Building Black Generational Wealth
Nationally, the gap between the share of Black and white households that own their homes (29.4%) is currently wider than it was in 1960 (27%). Homeownership remains a primary contributor to generational wealth. However, guaranteeing generational wealth in communities experiencing historic disinvestment often requires additional investment. The age and condition of homes across the service area, but specifically concentrated in municipalities with large Black populations, pose threats to generational wealth and the ability to pass family homes on to the next generation.
Geographic segregation perpetuates the racial wealth gap further. Homes in predominantly Black neighborhoods are valued at almost $50,000 less than those in majority white neighborhoods according to Brookings . Currently, Black homeowners are primarily concentrated in municipalities with low median home values.
