Re-Measuring Gentrification

Gentrification is typically measured by long-term changes in neighborhood composition, I argue that we should examine the relationship between relative house prices and incomes to assess gentrification.   Incomes reflect who lives there today, house prices reflect who is buying and selling there—and their expectations about future changes, and a gap between these (as shown in the data) provides information about future changes. I use this model to examine the rise in Black/White “integration” is due to an increase in the number of neighborhoods that are gentrifying.