CENTRAL-CITY AND SUBURBAN MIGRATION PATTERNS - IS A TURNAROUND ON THEHORIZON

The huge population losses that characterized many older, larger U.S. cities during the 1960s and 1970s slowed and in some cases ceased duri ng the 1980s and early 1990s. Periodic media reports of neighborhood t urnarounds, commercial revitalization, and improvements in housing and the quality of life in selected inner-city subareas have been taken a s signs that central cities are retaining middle-class residents and e ven attracting some back from the suburbs. Analysis of metropolitan ho usehold migration patterns based on the U.S. Census Bureau's 1980 and 1990 Public Use Microdata Samples and more recent Current Population S urveys shows that the dominant trend in residential movement among mos t population subgroups is still toward the suburbs. While not discount ing reports of central-city neighborhood turnarounds and selective dem ographic revitalization, our findings imply that those improvements ar e limited and that a widespread back-to-the-city movement is not likel y in the foreseeable future.