Shifting Migration Patterns Alter Portrait of Pr. George's

Akinlosotu said Prince George's is a favored destination because of the many churches and businesses that cater to African clientele.

"I think in the beginning it was the prices of homes that attracted them," Akinlosotu said. "Then, when you look at the amenities and the location and its proximity to the city, that is also attractive."

The Prince George's government has established programs to welcome immigrants and encourage entrepreneurial development, Byrd said. The county has African and Hispanic chambers of commerce, he said, along with more traditional business organizations.

Those are the kinds of amenities that are drawing working-class people to Prince George's, where relatively affordable real estate gives them a chance to buy a home, a key step into the middle class.

Salvadoran native Sonia Mercado was living in an apartment in Northwest Washington last year when she started looking for a house for herself and her 8-year-old daughter, Giselle.

Homes in the District, where she'd lived since arriving in the United States 11 years ago, were out of reach. She had no better luck in Arlington County, where she works cleaning office buildings. So when a real estate agent showed her an affordable two-bedroom, two-bath condominium near a good school in College Park, she snapped it up.

"The prices were much better in Prince George's County," Mercado, 29, said. "My condo is nicer than what I would have been able to get in those places."

The Ripple Effects

Migration patterns are also changing the region's frontier. In Anne Arundel and Howard counties, the black population has increased slightly since 2000, as have the median household incomes.

The changes in Charles are more dramatic. In 1990, the county's population was 18 percent African American. By 2000, it was 25 percent, and by 2005, 34 percent.

Charles is also becoming more affluent. Between 2000 and 2005, the median household income rose from $62,199 to $69,573, and the number of households making six figures nearly doubled, census data show.

"Charles County, from an economic perspective, represents a suburb of Prince George's County just as Prince George's County is a suburb of Washington, D.C.," Basu said. "That is where they find the greener pastures, the lower density, the rustic lifestyle, the cleaner air and so on."

Jennifer Walker, a real estate agent who is black, recently moved from Upper Marlboro to Waldorf because she wanted a safer environment for her four children, ages 6 to 17.

She said she hopes to pull them out of the private Christian school they attend in Bowie and enroll them in Charles's public schools.

Standing on the steps of her new home on a cul-de-sac off a two-lane country road, Walker said she loves her new community. "This is a breath of fresh air," she said.

Staff researcher Meg Smith contributed to this report.