Renting under racial capitalism: residential segregation and rent exploitation in the United States

Abstract This purpose of this study is to understand the nature of rent exploitation, or the cost burden that marginalized renters bear in an unequal housing market. I ask how rent exploitation is related to neighborhood characteristics and facilitated by residential segregation, and is further associated with housing problems including rent burden and eviction. Using the American Community Survey, I analyze rent exploitation and rent burden in neighborhoods by how they relate to neighborhood characteristics and residential segregation. I also use eviction records for a case study of Harris County, TX to analyze how rent exploitation impacts eviction rates. I find that neighborhoods with higher percentages of racially minoritized households and households below the poverty line experience higher levels of rent exploitation. Furthermore I find residential segregation is associated with more unequal levels of rent exploitation. Regression and GIS analysis together reveal that Black, Latinx, and poorer neighborhoods experience the highest levels of rent exploitation and eviction in Harris County. These findings reveal the conditions under which renters are more vulnerable to rent exploitation. Residential segregation is a mechanism of racial capitalism that makes inequality durable at the expense of Black and Latinx renters and renters below the poverty line.