Table 1. Median household incomes of racial and ethnic groups,
by region, 1990 and 2000

		Non-Hispanic	Non-Hispanic				Black	Hispanic	Asian
		White	Black	Hispanic	Asian		differential with whites
National	1990	$45,486	$27,808	$32,677	$48,995		$17,679	$12,809	($3,509)
	2000	$49,997	$31,885	$34,833	$53,333		$18,112	$15,164	($3,337)
	Absolute change	$4,511	$4,077	$2,156	$4,338
	Percentage change	9.90%	14.70%	6.60%	8.90%
Northeast	1990	$49,458	$32,341	$30,649	$50,717		$17,117	$18,809	($1,259)
	2000	$52,435	$35,036	$32,181	$53,116		$17,399	$20,254	($681)
	Absolute change	$2,977	$2,695	$1,532	$2,399
	Percentage change	6.00%	8.30%	5.00%	4.70%
Midwest	1990	$43,495	$24,850	$35,517	$43,909		$18,644	$7,977	($414)
	2000	$48,880	$29,241	$38,967	$52,010		$19,638	$9,913	($3,131)
	Absolute change	$5,385	$4,391	$3,450	$8,102
	Percentage change	12.40%	17.70%	9.70%	18.50%
South	1990	$42,714	$25,996	$29,363	$43,813		$16,718	$13,350	($1,099)
	2000	$47,743	$31,003	$33,254	$50,760		$16,740	$14,489	($3,017)
	Absolute change	$5,030	$5,008	$3,890	$6,947
	Percentage change	11.80%	19.30%	13.20%	15.90%
West	1990	$47,305	$33,052	$35,542	$50,723		$14,253	$11,763	($3,418)
	2000	$52,096	$35,865	$36,439	$54,682		$16,231	$15,657	($2,586)
	Absolute change	$4,791	$2,814	$898	$3,959
	Percentage change	10.10%	8.50%	2.50%	7.80%

 Table 2 lists the national and regional averages for the median household income of the neighborhood (census tract) where the average group member lived in 1990 and 2000. Again, whites have a considerable advantage over blacks and Hispanics, but Asians on average live in the neighborhoods with the highest incomes. This is the neighborhood gap in people's quality of life, and there is considerable evidence from other studies that it is associated with inequalities in public schools, safety, environmental quality, and public health. The Mumford Center's web pages show similar neighborhood gaps in most metro areas in per capita income, poverty rates, percent of residents with a college education or professional occupation, home ownership, and housing vacancy.

These data seem to correspond very closely to what was already shown in Table 1, and one would be tempted to conclude that blacks and Hispanics live in lower status neighborhoods than whites and Asians simply because of their own lower earnings. This would be a natural consequence of how a private housing market operates.