So true. We live in a racially/ethnically diverse neighborhood in the northern suburbs of Atlanta. I would bet that not one person could drive our streets and point out where a black, Asian, Hispanic, Indian or Caucasian family lives. We’ve been here for 16 years and have seen the neighborhood go from lily white to a hodgepodge of races while our property values continue to go up.
Once you get to upper middle class suburbs, the sort of people who would want to buy there tend to be more future-oriented and appreciate the value of stable to appreciating property values, and so make every effort to protect their investment in their residences. This is true regardless of any racial consideration. Drop down to middle class or working class neighborhoods, though, and you start to see detrimental behaviors, lack of basic upkeep, increasing rates of crime and such associated with a neighborhood that was formerly mostly or all caucasian shifting to a fair number of black residents. As the neighborhood continues to shift toward majority black, outright hostility to older, more longterm white residents begins to appear. Me, I don’t care what color my neighbors are, so long as they treat me decently, respect my property and maintain theirs. No loud gatherings at all hours, no mobs of people parking cars on lawns, no rundown houses, no police being called on my street. My home is my refuge, don’t mess with that and regard your neighboring home in the same way. We’ll get along just fine no matter what you are. But, that’s me. Others are different I guess.
Same here in our northern Virginia suburb. It’s very “diverse”, except for the fact that one has to have a pretty good steady income to live here. That alone weeds out the riffraff of all ethnicities, especially since the town started enforcing code violations of unrelated and too many people living in the same house. The illegals couldn’t have their dormitories any more, so they moved across the county lines and took their problems with them.