Race, Nativity, and/or Legal Status? Investigating Differences in Housing Cost Burden in Los Angeles

Eileen Diaz McConnell, Arizona State University

Housing costs are a substantial component of U.S. household expenditures. Those who allocate a large proportion of their income to housing often have to make difficult financial decisions with significant short-term and long-term implications. This study employs cross-sectional data from the first wave of the Los Angeles Family and Neighborhood Survey (L.A.FANS) collected between 2000 and 2002 to examine the likelihood of spending more than thirty percent of income on shelter costs. Multivariate analyses focus on differences between Whites, African Americans, U.S.-born Latinos, Latino authorized immigrants, and Latino unauthorized immigrants, after accounting for a broad range of individual, household, and neighborhood-level characteristics. The results reveal substantial housing cost burden challenges in Los Angeles even before the current financial and housing crisis, with especially large and persistent disparities for unauthorized Latino immigrants relative to other groups.