Would you buy a house in a Black, Gay, or Asian Community?

In My Humble Opinion
1

Would you have any reservations buying a house in a black community, gay community, or a community heavily populated by a group with a distinct cultural identity? I know most people’s first impulse is to say that it wouldn’t be a factor, but the segregated nature of most cities in the US leads me to believe that attitude is not very common when push comes to shove.

First, assume the house in in a good neighborhood with good schools, low taxes, and is reasonably priced. Also assume that it suits your needs, and fulfills your desires in every other aspect. The only thing is that you would be in the minority in terms of races/orientation. Would this be an issue for you? If so, why? If not, why do you think it is for other people?

2

Yup. Assuming it was a safe, quiet neighborhood, and the wife and I could afford it, of course.

For the record, I’m your typical white boy, and my wife is Korean.

3

I already live in a heavily gay community. Because it was affordable, it’s a safe, rural area, and I’m out of the winter flood zone. It’s never been a “problem” for me.

4

Well, I live in an area with a large Chinese population. In fact, 77% of the country is ethnically chinese. :smiley: So it’s obviously not an issue.

um… why is this in Cafe Society?

5

Where should it be? I really don’t quite get where to place some of these things. If a mod thinks it should be someplace else, please feel free to move it.

Also, if any of you would like to elaborate on your answers, I would appreciate it. For example, why do you think it’s an issue for other people?

6

If I was thinking about it on a practical level, I’d try and buy a house in an area that was only* just beginning* to turn gay. The gay community is known (in Australia at least) to have a strong upward influence on housing prices.

As it is, I live in a very diverse area, with lots of Lebanese and Eastern Europeans, as well as a smattering of Asians. We are buying our house here. When we were renting, we lived in an almost purely Vietnamese area (those who weren’t Vietnamese were Lebanese)… Of course, my wife is Vietnamese.

There were lots of Africans just starting to move in to that area, but “black” doesn’t have the same socio-economic connotations here as in the US. “Aboriginal” would be a better comparison, and frankly I’d hesitate to move into a heavily Aboriginal area because of the crime and dubious personal safety. Sad but true.

7

I’m straight and have been renting in a gay neighborhood for years. My wife and I love it here, and whenever we consider moving to another city we always check out the gay neighborhoods first. I’m not sure exactly how our gay neighbors feel about us (typical urbanites, we don’t know our neighbors well), but we’re far from the only straights around, and it seems everyone’s just used to each other.

Quote-from-memory: “I went to the bank today…straight people everywhere! Writing checks, making deposits…I’m tellin’ ya, they’re taking over. People don’t like to talk about it, but it’s true.” –Love! Valour! Compassion!

8

Assuming we could afford to buy a house right now in any neighborhood…I would have zero problems with moving into a predominantly gay or Asian neighborhood. Not like there are any of those in my town. Redneck city.

9

It would matter to me more what the economic status of the neighborhood was more than the ethnic makeup. Well, economic as it ties into violent and property crime rates. I’d much, much rather live in a middle class black neighborhood that was safe than a white neighborhood with crack houses and daily muggings. As for the gay neighborhood, sign me up, baby! Most neighborhoods with a predominance of gay people tend to have strong community ties, artistic ties, and the property values just go up. Don’t know so much about Asian neighborhoods, but I can’t think of anything I’d object to, off the top of my head.

10

As long as it wasn’t built on the demolished site of an ancient Indian burial ground. Those things are nothing but trouble.

11

I wouldn’t have a problem with buying a house in a gay neighborhood, if it weren’t for the commute - it’s on the west side of town (City of Lakewood), and my job is about 35 miles to the east.

Different cultural identity? Maybe. I had a problem househunting when I was living in Orlando; I worked in the western suburbs, which have a very large population of … uhh, those of a rural Confederate cultural orientation. The job was located so far west, I couldn’t commute from the city’s north, south or east ends. If I just bought the house I needed, I’d be in an area where most of my neighbors would be like the real life version of Larry the Cable Guy. If I didn’t want neighbors that flew the Stars and Bars, painted giant “3” signs on their garage doors, or engaged in recreational aerial gunfire, I had to buy a large house in a higher end subdivision.

Some cities tend to be ethnically far more insular than others, and I might be hesitant to move into an all-Polish neighborhood or all-Italian neighborhood in such areas. It’s not that I don’t want to be around them, but rather that they don’t want to be around me. In areas outside the Rust Belt, I’d be more open to neighborhoods that are dominated by a single ethnic group.

A predominantly African-American neighborhood? Again, it depends. In a growing region where real estate prices are high, and there is a lot of gentrification, definitely. Here in the Cleveland area, no. Houses in predominantly black neighborhoods here just don’t hold their value like those in white or stable integrated neighborhoods.

For example, let’s take Shaker Heights, an upper-middle-class city with a very low crime rate and great schools. You can buy a large house for about $60 to $70 a square foot in the predominantly African-American area south of Van Aiken Bouevard. On streets north of Van Aiken, which are stabily integrated, the same house on the street with the same character in the same school district will sell for $120 to $150 a square foot.

A house is an investment, and I’m not willing to sacrifice my equity for the sake of being politically correct. Sorry. (FWIW, I bought a house in a racially and ethnically mixed suburb; Russian immigrants, Jews, Italian-Americans and blacks make up the bulk of my neighbors.)

12

IMHO, most likely – since it’s basically a poll.

Cafe Society description is:

13

Those tend to be a good investment too. Recent Asian arrivals tend, like recent arrivals from anywhere, to congregate in the poorer parts of town. However, due to strong work and family ethics, these people have a habit of doing well for themselves, and ten or twenty years down the line, that neighbourhood has exchanged its heroin dealers’ BMWs parked on the street for self-made honest residents’ BMWs parked on the street, and house prices go up accordingly. Asians tend to be quiet, friendly, trouble-free neighbours.

The above is a huge generalisation of course, but it has been a consistent pattern here in Sydney and elsewhere.

14

:Looks at skin:
:Looks at location field:

Yep. Would and did. Our new place seems to be in a neighborhood that’s traditionally very blue-collar, with large populations of tattered-collar and no-collar. I guess we’re among the first wave of gentrification. Still, seems to be a very nice place.

If anything, I’d avoid buying in a area with a large American population.

15

Heh. So true. Also, these areas tend to have really good restaurants, bars, shops and theatres. :wink:

Personally it wouldn’t really be ethnic background per se that would influence me for or against buying in that area. I have the sort of background (mixed) myself where I don’t tend to stick out anywhere - I’ve been taken for being Italian, Greek, Lebanese, Egyptian, Indian, Iranian, and so on. It would be more the atmosphere of the place (welcoming or hostile) and at the moment, whether I can afford it. :frowning:

16

Black/Asian/any other race? Why not, if I like the house and the price is right?

Gay neighborhood? With my politics? No, because I wouldn’t be welcome there.

17

I’m gay and I live in a mostly straight neighborhood. While straights are generally okay as neighbors but they have all these damned… “little humans”… that come out of them and irritate my dog.

My basic philosophy of choosing a place to live is “figure out what is the maximum you can afford to pay… then spend it” as if you’re not happy where you live you won’t be happy anywhere. Generally speaking I look for trouble signs when selecting a place: children and or dogs running around unwatched, people who let their lawns get disgusting or their trash pile up, are there too many adults at home in daytime, if I drive through on a Friday night at midnight (which I always do when looking for a place) is there much noise, and of course I check crime statistics for the area. As long as everything checks, I don’t care what race the neighbors are- given a choice twixt Larry the Cable Guy and Cicely Tyson as a next door neighbor, I just don’t need that much time to make up my mind.

18

Pardon the hijack, but how & why do you share your politics with neighbors? And why do you think that gays are politically uniform?

19

I am the minority here. Most of my neighbors ar Asian.

20

Ah. Sorry for the mistake. Hopefully someone will move it.