I had the opportunity to buy comparable houses in a mostly black neighborhood and a mixed neighborhood back in 01. Both were considered "Starter" communities... relatively low-priced. My real estate broker counseled me to buy in the mixed neighborhood NOT because of the racial makeup but because of the economic makeup.

Namely, the people in the mixed neighborhood had higher incomes yet were more financially conservative. They saw their homes as the starter homes that they were and either bought well below their limits or saw considerable pay increases because they were upwardly mobile in their careers. Either way, they were able to live their lives, maintain and even improve their homes and then move on to bigger better homes with a combination of their savings and their profit from their homes.

The people in the other neighborhood were generally poorer with poorer career prospects. They stretched to afford their homes then stretched to buy the best car they could afford (ironically, they had better cars in this community than the mixed one). They didn't have the money to maintain their homes, let alone improve them, so property values stagnated. They stayed in their homes forever because they couldn't sell their homes for a meaningful profit and their other financial decision limited their savings.

So what you may consider a racial thing is really an economic thing with some cultural/racial spice... there were alot of black people in that mixed neighborhood too but they were either upwardly mobile or just benefitted from living around alot of other people that were upwardly mobile.

I ignored this lesson on my 2nd home purchase and I'm paying the price now.