Racial Change in a Stable Community

A Chicago community experiencing racial transition is compared with an all-white control area to test the common assumption that transition is necessarily accompanied by a "flight" of whites, with a consequent abnormally high rate of property turnover (i.e., "instability"). It is found, through an inspection of property turnover records and by comparison of numbers of "For Sale" signs in the two areas, that the transition community shows no signs of instability. The assumption of a necessary link between transition and instability is thus rejected; implications for the goal of residential racial integration are discussed.