Eviction Dynamics in Market-Rate Multifamily Rental Housing
David Robinson, Justin Steil
Abstract
Evictions are a pressing issue facing many low-income renters. The growing scholarship on evictions generally groups together all types of evictions across multiple property and owner types. Eviction dynamics may differ, however, between publicly subsidized affordable housing providers and private, market-rate rental landlords, or between evictions filed for different reasons, such as non-payment of rent or for no-fault. We examine the neighborhood, property and owner characteristics of evictions in private market-rate rental housing. Analyzing all evictions filed in Boston Housing Court between 2014 and 2017, we find that in market-rate multifamily rental housing, eviction filings are more likely in more recently constructed or renovated nonowner-occupied properties with higher assessed values compared with other properties in the same neighborhood. Eviction filings are also more likely in neighborhoods with a higher share of Black renters, and lower average educational attainment, above and beyond neighborhood economic characteristics. Nonpayment and no-fault eviction filings show more similarities than they do differences. These findings suggest that policies designed to mitigate evictions and their impacts on low-income renters should take into account the salience of owner-occupancy status, property age and value, and the particularly precarious situation of low-income renters in neighborhoods where a majority of renters are Black.