Forecast Direct No. 31 - Racial Discrimination and Equity in the Housing Market

Racial discrimination in any market is a sign of a market failure and needs to be quantitively identified, to prompt policy-based steps towards equity.

In this episode, UCLA real estate economist, Sayantani hosts Alina Arefeva, Assistant Professor at the Department of Real Estate and Urban Land Economics, Wisconsin School of Business, who will discuss the presence and extent of racial discrimination in the housing market, through analyzing the differential impact of eviction moratorium on minorities. Professor Arefeva studies discrimination through a housing search model, and empirically quantifies a significant drop in the relative rental-housing-based response ratio to African Americans, after the end of the COVID eviction moratorium. She provides potential policy implications of the findings and implore the need for further research to weigh the intensified discrimination with the benefit of having more security for existing minority renters.