Federal mortgage insurance and the characteristics of intraurban movers in the United States

This paper examines the social, economic, demographic and locational characteristics of the clients of the Federal Housing Administration's mortgage insurance program. The program has been accused of fostering the development of white middle class suburbs and nonwhite central cities. The data used in this analysis are from 1976 and 1977, and indicate that the mortgage insurance program is less suburb oriented than private financing of houses in the same price range. White homebuyers under the program are more likely to purchase suburban homes than nonwhite, however. This is a result of a variety of actors in the housing market of which the Federal Housing Administration is one. The paper concludes with comments on what kinds of people use the program and ways to ensure that the users benefit from the insurance.