Prejudice still a big factor in housing.

Discrimination and prejudice against minorities remains the best explanation for racial housing segregation in U.S. metropolitan areas. research suggests. Other common explanations for segregation -- that racial groups choose to live together or that minorities can't afford to buy houses or rent apartments in white neighborhoods -- were not supported by the study in Los Angeles. It also found that, among minority groups, blacks suffered the greatest amount of discrimination and prejudice. White hostility and institutional discrimination against black homebuyers were some of the contributing factors to segregation, indicates Camille Zubrinsky, assistant professor of sociology, Ohio State University, Columbus, co-author of the study.

The Los Angeles Survey of Urban Inequality included in-depth, face-to-face interviews with 4,025 whites, blacks, Latinos, and Asians in the city's metropolitan area. Even though blacks tend to earn less than whites, many black homeowners were making mortgage payments that would allow them to live in desirable white neighborhoods. For example, 38% of blacks surveyed had mortgage payments between $600 and $1,400 a month, similar to 43% of whites. About one-half of Asians and Latinos had payments in this range. Similar results occurred among renters, with blacks' average monthly rent just $49 less than that of whites.

While the study found that people liked to live in neighborhoods where their own race was the majority, that wasn't the driving force behind segregation, according to Zubrinsky. "All groups appear to want both integration and a significant number of same-race neighbors."

It frequently has been argued that blacks themselves are most responsible for segregation because they want to live in black-dominated neighborhoods...