Unequal recovery: The urban-rural disparity in the housing recovery efforts from the US housing mortgage crisis

Keywords: urban-rural disparity, housing, equity, recovery, housing crisis
Session Type: Virtual Lightning Paper Abstract
Day: Monday
Session Start / End Time: 2/28/2022 03:40 PM (Eastern Time (US & Canada)) - 2/28/2022 05:00 PM (Eastern Time (US & Canada))
Room: Virtual 78

Abstract

Ninety-seven percent of the United States [US] land area is rural, but only 19.3 percent of the US population lives there (US Census, 2017). For this reason, despite the environmental and economic values, rural communities receive more minor priorities than urban, resulting in dealing with different and often severe problems from its counterpart. Housing Assistance Council (2012) suggests that rural communities face high housing vacancies, limited housing stocks for homeowners or renters, hardships accessing mortgage finance, housing affordability, substandard housing conditions, and low public investments.
The housing financial crisis of 2008-2010 hurt every community in the US. With the enormous Great Recession efforts by the federal, state, and local governments, the housing crisis on the financing of the US’s cities seemed to make significant improvements overall. However, the efforts were unequal geographically, especially between urban and rural communities. There is no research focusing on the urban-rural disparities of the housing recovery in the US, and this research aims to fill the gap.
Utilizing the US Census and the CDC/ATSDR Social Vulnerability Index, the study will develop a comparative model encompassing various socio-economic, demographic, and housing factors between rural and urban communities, longitudinally and cross-sectionally. This research will focus on North Carolina as the geographic boundary with Census Tract as the unit of analysis. The timeframe for the study will be between 2010 and 2020—a decade since the housing financial crisis in 2008-2010.