According to local and national experts who study economic mobility, housing and race, Seattle’s Black middle class is increasingly being displaced by rising housing costs, wealth disparities and long-standing structural inequities.
While Black middle-class households continue to exist throughout the region, experts say many families are being pushed farther from Seattle’s urban core as the cost of living rises and pathways to wealth-building become more difficult to access.
Angela Simms, an assistant professor of sociology and urban studies at Barnard College-Columbia University, said the conversation begins with a broader question: What does it mean to be middle class in today’s economy?…