Whiteness in Crisis? Orange County and the New Post-Foreclosure Suburban Order

Lauren Alfrey
Sociology
UC Santa Barbara

Orange County is a Southern California suburb known for its sprawling master planned communities and the high-end lifestyles of its residents. Once a bastion for White conservatives, the past fifty years brought increased migration from Latin America and Southeast Asia, leading some to celebrate Orange County as a post-racial suburban melting pot. The great recession of the early 21st century, however, has revealed cracks in this narrative. As a whole, the county was one of the least affected by the housing crisis, yet foreclosure and census data by city or town suggest deep economic disparities by race, ethnicity, and class. This study examined whether the recession impacted the possessive investment in whiteness, an historically-entrenched pattern of white wealth generated through property ownership. By analyzing regional foreclosure rates, lending practices, and planning documents, the project assessed whether demographic population changes signal a utopic melting pot, or increasing stratification among residentially segregated racial-ethnic groups.