The Interaction of Culture and Context among Ethno-Racial Groups in the Housing Markets of Canada and the United States: Differences in the Gateway City Effect across Groups and Countries

Michael Haan, University of New Brunswick
Zhou Yu, University of Utah

This paper compares residential assimilation among Asian Indian, Chinese, Korean, Filipino, black and white immigrants in the U.S. and Canada, using native-born, non-Hispanic whites as a common reference group. We focus on the arrival cohort that came to Canada or the United States and analyze the pace of assimilation over a five-year period (2000 to 2005 for the US, 2001 to 2006 for Canada). Building on our previous work, we simultaneously model homeownership attainment measured and household formation at the individual level. We extend our earlier work by looking more closely at metropolitan factors, such as rent and median housing price. Preliminary results show that although homeownership levels are fairly similar across countries, we find considerable differences in household formation patterns. We interpret this as evidence of an interaction effect between desire within groups to own, and their reaction to environmental opportunity structures.