Neighborhood Change

Understanding patterns of neighborhood development and change, and their effect on local residents and businesses, is critically important for policymakers who wish to promote community development. The Furman Center explores several aspects of neighborhood change, such as the crime and urban flight on residents (especially poor renters); the residential decisions households make to move into neighborhoods that have average incomes lower than their own; and the impact of business incentive programs on the composition of retail services.

Current Research Agenda

In a time of economic upheaval, it’s vital to understand how neighborhoods change and to help policymakers make informed decisions about community development.

Our current research projects include:

  • Affordable Housing And Crime In New York City
  • American Murder Mystery Revisited: Do Housing Voucher Households Cause Crime?
  • Are Voucher Households Reaching Safe Neighborhoods?
  • Long-Term Outcomes Of Neighborhood Gains: Can Low-Income Neighborhoods Become Stable, Integrated Communities?
  • The Effects Of Crime On Children’s School Performance
  • Urban ‘Pioneers’: When Do Higher-Income Households Choose Lower-Income Neighborhoods?

View all Neighborhood Change research projects »

For a list of all the Furman Center’s current research projects, download our Current Research Agenda.

Featured Researcher

Ingrid Gould Ellen

Ingrid Gould Ellen is Professor of Urban Planning and Public Policy at NYU’s Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service and Co-Director of the Furman Center for Real Estate and Urban Policy.  Her research centers on neighborhoods, housing, and residential segregation.  Professor Ellen is author of Sharing America’s Neighborhoods: The Prospects for Stable Racial Integration (Harvard University Press, 2000) and has been published in such journals as Urban Studies, the Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, Brookings-Wharton Papers on Urban Affairs, and Housing Policy Debate.  She is currently undertaking a national study of economic change in U.S. neighborhoods.  In addition, she is studying the interaction between investments in schools and subsidized housing and examining why some parcels of land remain underdeveloped, even in hot markets.

Latest News & Events

Latest Publications

  • Policy Brief

    Investigating the Relationship Between Housing Voucher Use and Crime

    This policy brief debunks the long-held myth that the influx of households with vouchers causes crime in a neighborhood to increase. Rather, the report finds that housing voucher recipients tend to move into neighborhoods with high existing levels of crime. These findings should reassure communities worried about entry of voucher holders, but also raise questions about whether the Housing Choice Voucher program is reaching its stated goal of helping recipients reach “better” neighborhoods.

    Furman Center and Moelis Institute for Affordable Housing Policy. March 2013.

    affordable housing, crime, neighborhoods, renters, subsidized housing

  • Policy Brief

    Do Foreclosures Cause Crime?

    Foreclosures affect not only individual homeowners, but also the crime levels of the surrounding neighborhood. This study found that neighborhoods with concentrated foreclosures see an uptick in crime for each foreclosure notice issued. These effects are pronounced in hardest hit neighborhoods; that is, those with concentrated foreclosures. The report suggests that policing and community stabilizing efforts should prioritize areas with concentrated foreclosures, especially those where crime rates are already moderate to high.

    Ingrid Gould Ellen, Johanna Ruth Lacoe. February 2013.

    crime, foreclosure, homeownership, housing, mortgages, neighborhoods

  • Article

    Do Foreclosures Cause Crime?

    The mortgage foreclosure crisis has generated increasing concerns about the effects of foreclosed properties on their surrounding neighborhoods, and on criminal activity in particular. Using a unique dataset of point-specific longitudinal crime and foreclosure data from New York City, this paper explores whether foreclosed properties affect criminal activity on the surrounding blockface – an individual street segment including properties on both sides of the street. The researchers report that foreclosures on a blockface lead to additional violent crimes and public order crimes, and these effects are largest when foreclosure activity is measured by the number of bank-owned properties on a blockface.

    Ingrid Gould Ellen, Johanna Lacoe, Claudia Ayanna Sharygin. Journal of Urban Economics . August 2012.

    crime, mortgage foreclosures, neighborhoods

  • Data Brief

    The Changing Racial and Ethnic Makeup of NYC Neighborhoods

    This analysis from the 2011 State of New York City’s Housing and Neighborhoods report finds that 28 percent of the city’s census tracts were racially integrated in 2010, up from 22 percent of tracts in 1990. The percentage of neighborhoods that are mixed-minority also rose, from 17 percent of all tracts in 1990 to 24 percent in 2010.  Meanwhile, the share of neighborhoods that are majority white declined sharply, from 40 percent of all census tracts in the city to 23 percent.

    The Furman Center for Real Estate and Urban Policy. May 2012.

    neighborhoods, race

View more Neighborhood Change publications »

Neighborhood Change in the News