article about blacks in dallas



Black wealth blossoms in suburbs

D-FW ranks among top U.S. areas for well-off professionals 


10:02 PM CDT on Saturday, June 25, 2005


By JENNIFER LaFLEUR / The Dallas Morning News 


First of four parts 

Dallas-Fort Worth is emerging as a dynamic center for high-income black professionals, after years of being little more than an afterthought in discussions about affluence. 


IRWIN THOMPSON/DMN 
Malcolm Mayo (left), 34, bought a house in Lancaster, where he liked the house value and short commute. The number of black households in the metro area that earn at least $100,000 tripled during the 1990s, propelling Dallas-Fort Worth into the ranks of the nation's leading metropolitan areas for upper-income black professionals, according to a Dallas Morning News analysis. Adjusted for inflation, $100,000 in 2000 is the equivalent of about $75,000 in 1990, the baseline for the analysis. 

Among 28 metropolitan areas with at least 1 million people, and in which at least 10 percent of households are black, the Dallas-Fort Worth area has the sixth-highest percentage of black households making at least $100,000. That places the D-FW area behind established centers of black affluence such as Atlanta and Washington, D.C., and ahead of Indianapolis, Houston and Philadelphia.

Suburbs such as Coppell, Frisco, Cedar Hill, Mansfield and Rowlett – not the central cities of Dallas and Fort Worth – saw the most dramatic increases, a trend hardly unique to this area. 

The D-FW area also posted the fifth-biggest gain in upper-income black households during the 1990s, growing from about 5,300 to more than 16,000 households. 


IRWIN THOMPSON/DMN 
Banking worker Marsha Johnson (left) enjoys lemonade with daughter Danielle Johnson, 17, while husband Roy Johnson, who's in mortgage banking, cooks in their Rowlett home. While the overall number of upper-income African-American households here remains relatively small, the growth in affluent black households during the 1990s marks an important trend for the D-FW area, making it a destination for black professionals. 

Unlike Atlanta and Washington, D.C., the affluent black population in the D-FW area is more spread out, with small, growing pockets in newer, more affluent cities and larger populations emerging in older inner-ring suburbs with larger black populations. 

As their numbers grow here, affluent blacks are changing more than the demographics of their communities. They are making their mark in the business community. They are demanding more from their local schools. They are creating large, primarily black churches. Political power still eludes them, however, given their relatively small numbers and the lack of a concentrated geographic bloc of voters. 

Fueling the increase in affluent blacks is a growing North Texas economy, which is attracting black professionals from other cities as well as launching black residents already in the area into higher income brackets. 

"The economy has been growing, and therefore employment has been growing, particularly in the professional managerial ranges," said Roderick Harrison, a demographer with the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies in Washington, D.C. "It means that nationally, blacks are finding job opportunities and moving there to take advantage of that." 

Some of the increase in area suburbs is the result of affluent blacks from outside the metropolitan area moving to the suburbs when they arrive. Many are moving from suburb to suburb in search of bigger homes and better schools. Less significant is the number of black professionals moving from Dallas or Fort Worth to the suburbs. 

A New Face of Affluence

The Dallas Morning News spent several months examining the dynamics of affluent black households in the Dallas-Fort Worth metropolitan region. The News analyzed U.S. census data from 1990 to 2000, comparing the growth in upper-income black households locally and nationally. Reporters interviewed families, demographers, economists and educators, as well as civic, business and religious leaders about the status of black residents in the region. 

The findings 
The D-FW region was the fifth-fastest-growing metropolitan area in the country for its percentage increase (205 percent) in black household income from 1989 to 1999. 

The D-FW region has the sixth-largest percentage (6.2 percent) of black households earning six-figure salaries. 

The number of black households earning $100,000 in the D-FW region tripled between 1989 and 1999. 

In 18 local cities and towns, at least 10 percent of black households earn more than $100,000 a year. 

In 22 area cities, more than half of black residents own homes. 

Seven percent of all black children in the area attend private schools, compared with 13 percent of black children from households with incomes of at least $100,000. 

Methodology 
The News analyzed data from the 1990 and 2000 censuses to produce this report. We used $100,000 as the cutoff for the top income bracket in the 2000 census. Adjusted for inflation, that cutoff is about $75,000 in 1990 census data. When the census asks respondents about income, it asks for the total household income from the previous year. So, for the 1990 census, the government asks for total household income in 1989. For the 2000 census, information collected is about total household income in 1999. To identify African-American households, the U.S. Census Bureau uses the race of the householder. 

Where are we now? 
The most recent census data is the 2003 American Community Survey. According to that data, the percentage of black households in the top income bracket remains around 6 percent. The survey is intended to eliminate what is known as the "long form" of the 2010 census, which is used to collect information such as income, employment, commute times, home values and other data. Because the data are based on survey data, exact rankings of metropolitan areas can change based on the margin of error. In addition, not all cities are included in the survey. Currently, only cities of 250,000 people or more are included. By 2010, the survey will yield annual data down to the neighborhood level. 



Black Professionals: A new face of affluenceStill, some of the growth in suburban black affluence is at the expense of the core city. During the last 20 years, and especially over the last decade, more and more blacks moved out of big cities and into suburbs, much like young white families did in the 1950s and '60s, said John Logan, professor of sociology at Brown University. "So there's a little bit of catching up going on." 


Catching up 

In the Dallas region, that catching up has been more pronounced in southern suburbs that already have larger concentrations of black households, although not necessarily with high incomes. African-Americans also are beginning to make up ground in other towns that, until recently, had few black residents. 

The city of Dallas, much like other core cities around the nation, did see some expansion in the number of affluent black households, but not nearly at the rate of gains by suburbs. 

Upper-income black households in Dallas grew 84 percent from the 1990 to 2000 census, but the city's growth trailed both the state and the D-FW region as a whole. 

About half of blacks in households earning six figures moved between 1995 and 2000, according to census figures. Seventy percent moved within the D-FW area. Five percent moved from another part of Texas. The rest came from other parts of the country. 

In many area suburbs, the number of affluent households increased significantly. But many of those increases seem dramatic because they started from such small bases in 1989, the year for which the 1990 census income data were gathered. 

When Kevin Davis, 35, moved to Valley Ranch from Indiana in 1996, fresh with an MBA and recruited by a local company, he didn't see a lot of other black professionals in his neighborhood. 

That's changing now, in cities across the D-FW region. 

In Coppell, where Mr. Davis and his wife, Terri, bought a house in 2002, the proportion of black households earning more than $100,000 nearly doubled during the 1990s from 22 percent to 41 percent of black households. 

"People see this as a growth area and treat it as such," said Mr. Davis, now vice president for marketing of Sabre Holdings, a major travel industry company. "As the market changes, diversity will grow." 

Other area cities have seen similar changes. 


Rising median income 

In more than 20 D-FW-area cities with at least 200 black households, median black household income exceeds the median income for black households nationwide. In 13 local cities, the income for black households exceeds the median for all U.S. households. And in six of those cities, the median household income for black households exceeds that city's overall median income. 


Income boom cities 

In Lancaster, just south of Dallas, the number of black households in the upper-income ranks – $75,000 in 1989 and $100,000 in 1999 – increased more than eightfold during the 1990s from 40 to 338 households.

In the eastern suburb of Rowlett, where the overall median income in 1999 was almost $71,000, the median income for black households was about $72,000. 

In Farmers Branch, north of Dallas, the 1990 census reported that no black households made more than $75,000. According to the 2000 census, even though the city's black population is small, nearly 1 out of 4 black households topped $100,000. 

In Forest Hill, southeast of Fort Worth, 59 percent of all households are black. Yet blacks make up 84 percent of households earning more than $100,000 a year. 

Those moving to area suburbs – both from outside or within the D-FW area – have fatter paychecks and higher education levels and tend to be younger families, Dr. Logan said. 

The Dallas area is a good place to study the rise of black affluence, Dr. Logan said. "There's a much stronger relationship of high-income movement in the suburbs." 

"I've been in mortgage banking for 24 years," said Roy Johnson, 44, a suburban branch manager for Wells Fargo Mortgage. "Before, if I saw an application for an attorney, a doctor or someone making $100,000 plus, I assumed they were white. That's not the case anymore." 

Mr. Johnson and his wife, Marsha, 42, who also works in banking, moved from Garland to Rowlett in 2002. 

"The pros of Dallas are the cost of living and the climate for starting a business," said Mr. Davis, president of the local chapter of the National Black MBA Association, a professional development organization. 

The D-FW area, like other Southern metro areas, also benefits from a well-documented trend that began in the second half of the last century: Blacks who had migrated to the North to find better social and work conditions began moving back to the South. 

A May 2004 study of this trend by the Brookings Institution, a think tank based in Washington, D.C., found that from 1995 to 2000 D-FW was second to Atlanta in migration of blacks, particularly college-educated blacks. 

Mr. Davis, who grew up in Chicago, said that black professionals who move here often move to cities and specific neighborhoods where other company colleagues live. That means that the black community, which once was concentrated in a handful of neighborhoods and cities, is much more diffuse and disconnected from the urban core. 

"African-Americans are a little less segregated among suburban neighborhoods than they are within central cities," Dr. Logan said. 

"That means moving to a somewhat more diverse environment. Many times, it also means moving to a better school, a more safe neighborhood and other kinds of amenities traditionally associated with suburban residents." 


Trying to connect 

As a result, Mr. Davis said, "it's hard to find ways to connect with the community." 

Black professionals such as Mr. Davis, who move to affluent communities such as Coppell and Frisco, still represent a fraction of the population in those cities. 

Other black professionals, who move to cities with larger African-American communities, tend to choose older inner-ring suburbs such as the southern cities of Desoto, Lancaster, Duncanville and Cedar Hill. 

"There's a strong tendency to be clustered in certain suburban communities – older inner-ring suburbs," Dr. Logan said. 

That means some affluent blacks will choose neighborhoods or communities with lower income levels. 

According to figures from Brown University's American Communities Project, blacks earning more than $60,000 a year live in Dallas-area suburban neighborhoods with average incomes of $61,000. 

According to the study, whites in the same income group live in neighborhoods with an average income of $71,000. 

"You might think of affluent blacks as having two main choices – moving to almost exclusively white or small black [population] suburbs, where the choice is I'm going to live with other people of similar income," Dr. Harrison of the Joint Center said. "Or no, I don't just want to be affluent – I want a substantial black representation. That's one of the main choices or options." 

The diversity of the area was just one consideration for Brian Terry, 30, when he decided to build a house outside of Frisco in Little Elm, which has few black residents. 

"We also could get a lot of home for the money," said Mr. Terry, who is building the house with his girlfriend, Shoya Bell, 30. "I looked for the best price, and then you kind of hope that the neighborhood is right."

Mr. Terry moved to the D-FW area two years ago from Louisiana, where he was getting his MBA degree. 



Thriving in Lancaster 

The city of Lancaster has seen the most significant growth in affluent black households in southern Dallas County and now has the second-highest percentage of black residents – 53 percent – in the D-FW area. 

The city has seen a mix of people moving from around the metropolitan area. Affordable housing and plenty of open space attract many people to the city of nearly 32,000, which grew more than 40 percent from 1990 to 2005. 

"We're also a 15-minute commute from downtown Dallas, which makes us attractive," Lancaster Mayor Joe Tillotson said. 

Lancaster has added about 550 new homes a year in the last several years, built a $17 million park with a library and recreation center and plans to open a new high school in 2006. 

Malcolm Mayo, a senior financial analyst for the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas, bought a house in Lancaster a year ago. He looked at other communities, including Garland and North Dallas, but Lancaster provided the best "bang for the buck" without forcing him into a long commute. 

Mr. Mayo, 34, moved to Dallas in 2000 from Atlanta. He rented an apartment in North Dallas until he purchased his Lancaster home. 

Although Mr. Mayo grew up in Louisville, Ky., his parents now live in Dallas. 

"Plus, Dallas' job market at the time was very good," he said. "Atlanta was becoming saturated." 

Mr. Mayo said he is frequently asked why he moved to Dallas from Atlanta, a city with a long-standing reputation for being an inviting place for affluent blacks. 

"If I was 24 now, Atlanta would probably be a better place," he said. "Dallas works just fine for me. There's a lot of stuff to do in Dallas, you just have to know where it is." 

He acknowledged that it might be harder to find cultural and arts events. Dallas also may not be as enticing a market for some entertainment acts. 

"We're a third minority here," he said. "You have to factor that into the equation. The majority of Atlanta is African-American." 

Even suburbs with traditionally small black populations are seeing growth. 

When Kevin Davis returns to his Valley Park neighborhood, he finds it more diverse than when he moved there nine years ago. He thinks the same thing will happen in Coppell. 

"Many of the African-Americans in this area are doing well," Mr. Davis said. "Yet we're all spread out."