This also often occurs because African Americans have emulated the white flight of their European American counterparts and move to the outer sections of the Greater Los Angeles areas to escape the ever-increasing Hispanic population. In 1985 African Americans made up 72% of the population of the area. By 2006 the black proportion of the population had decreased to just 24%. The Latino population had risen from 21% in 1985 to 69% in 2006, as one population replaced another. From 2004–2005, Latino demand for housing caused prices to rise more than 40 percent in Watts and South Central Los Angeles. With the reverse movement of the New Great Migration, the South has been the gaining region for black migrants coming from all three other census regions, especially from 1995 to 2000. The chief gaining states have been Georgia, Texas, North Carolina, Florida, Maryland, Virginia and Tennessee. In the same period, Georgia, Texas and Maryland attracted the most black college graduates. Houston and Dallas center cities have lost black population as the middle class has moved to the suburbs. In a change from previous settlement patterns, new regional migrants settle directly in the suburbs, the areas of largest residential growth and often the location of jobs as well. In addition to Atlanta, the top metropolitan areas attracting African Americans include Orlando, Jacksonville and Tallahassee, Florida; and Charlotte, North Carolina. The economic disparities between some classes of European Americans and African Americans have diminished. Black Americans today have a median income level much higher than they did in the 1990 census and as compared to the 2000 census, after inflation is considered. African Americans occupy a higher percentage of high-paying jobs within the USA than they used to. This has led to a rapidly increasing black middle class. Many of United States suburbs are becoming diversified with black and white residents coexisting in affluent neighborhoods. With the economic division within similar classes declining between races, African-American movement to the suburbs has resulted in some suburbs becoming more diverse. The extent to which increased economic prosperity among African Americans has led to integration among white people and black people is debatable. Some scholars suggest that the narrowing economic divide is helping the US to become an increasingly "color-blind" society, but others note the "de facto" segregation in many residential areas and continuing social discrimination. In some cases, longtime black renters have been priced out of inner city neighborhoods because of rising rents caused by gentrification. Owners who want to move to smaller housing cannot afford it. In other cases, rising home values increase property tax assessments to a level which longtime homeowners cannot afford.