Segregation by Design: Mechanisms of Selection of Latinos and Whites into Gated Communities

Gated communities have been thought to contribute to urban inequality, but empirical evidence is limited. This study utilizes the American Housing Survey for 2001 to examine the differential access of Latinos and Whites to gated communities in metropolitan United States. The results show that education is the most important sorting mechanism: as education increases, so does the probability to gate. On one hand, education trumps the effects of social class for owners, leading to segmentation within each class category, regardless of race/ethnicity; on the other hand, Latinos with higher education tend to select gated residences more often than comparable Whites.