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Civil rights and race relations materials, 1957-1964

What You Can Do About Racial Prejudice In Housing Page 14

white owners themselves. If white residents panic and rush to put up "For Sale" signs, the supply of houses will quickly exceed demand--and prices and property values will plummet. In this case, only the real estate speculator buying at low "scare" prices and and selling at high Negro prices will profit. But if present home owners remain cool headed, supply will not outstrip demand--and property values will remain stable, or even rise. It is therefore not Negroes who adversely affect property values, but whites who react in violence and panic to their arrival--because they think property values may be depressed!
This was most clearly shown in the recent experience of a midwestern suburb where a panic reaction to the rumored arrival of a few Negro families drove down property prices abruptly. But in communities not far away, the intermixture of white and Negro families, intelligently handled, caused not a ripple in the level of property values.
The fact, then, is clear. When Negro families of equivalent standards buy homes in a community and are welcomed without hysteria or fear, the community is enriched and property values remain stable. Careful research has shown, too, that white families do not stop buying houses in an area where Negroes have also started to buy.[7] It is the stability and general character of a community that governs the kind of people who come to it seeking homes.
Q: Don't Negroes allow their property to become run-down?
When Negroes enter white communities, standards of property upkeep do not necessarily decline. There are many neighborhoods which testify to the fact that when Negroes are able to own or rent homes or apartments in decent condition, they maintain them as well as--or better than--their white neighbors or the whites who preceded them.
Much, of course, depends on the condition of the neighborhood in the first place, and on the condition of
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white owners themselves. If white residents panic and rush to put up "For Sale" signs, the supply of houses will quickly exceed demand--and prices and property values will plummet. In this case, only the real estate speculator buying at low "scare" prices and and selling at high Negro prices will profit. But if present home owners remain cool headed, supply will not outstrip demand--and property values will remain stable, or even rise. It is therefore not Negroes who adversely affect property values, but whites who react in violence and panic to their arrival--because they think property values may be depressed! This was most clearly shown in the recent experience of a midwestern suburb where a panic reaction to the rumored arrival of a few Negro families drove down property prices abruptly. But in communities not far away, the intermixture of white and Negro families, intelligently handled, caused not a ripple in the level of property values. The fact, then, is clear. When Negro families of equivalent standards buy homes in a community and are welcomed without hysteria or fear, the community is enriched and property values remain stable. Careful research has shown, too, that white families do not stop buying houses in an area where Negroes have also started to buy.[7] It is the stability and general character of a community that governs the kind of people who come to it seeking homes. Q: Don't Negroes allow their property to become run-down? When Negroes enter white communities, standards of property upkeep do not necessarily decline. There are many neighborhoods which testify to the fact that when Negroes are able to own or rent homes or apartments in decent condition, they maintain them as well as--or better than--their white neighbors or the whites who preceded them. Much, of course, depends on the condition of the neighborhood in the first place, and on the condition of 14