Today Explained: Homeownership Gap Between Black and White Americans at Widest In A Decade

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More than nine million people in the U S own homes today than a decade ago. But all that growth was not spread evenly. The National Association of Realtors analyzed recent housing data and they found that the gap between black homeownership and rates across other races in the U S is much bigger than it was in 2011. That has profound implications for every American no matter which race you claim in 2021 about 72.7% of white Americans own homes. Only 44% of Black Americans did for Asian Americans. It was 62.8% for Hispanic Americans. It was 50.6% with high interest rates and prices. You need to earn more than $100,000 a year to buy a medium priced home in the US. And that hurts black people who typically earn less and have lower net worth $24,000 for an African American In 2019, the typical white family's net worth is 188 $1000 and this is lower. This lower net worth is often a function of generation after generation of renting instead of building equity and owning real estate making the jump from renting to owning is really tough for Black Americans. You normally don't want to spend more than 30% of your income on housing. But over half of black renters spend more than 30% on rent. Now, 30% of black renters actually give up more than 50% of their income on rent. Only 22% of white renters spend as much. Now, 90% of buyers no matter what race you are finance their home purchased by applying for a mortgage. But black Americans are denied mortgages more often than whites denial rates are 20% for African Americans. 15% for Hispanic applicants, 11% for white buyers and 10% for Asian applicants lower income seems to be the main reason that more black households were denied mortgage rates in these areas. Now, those are just some of the factors fueling America's racial gap in homeownership. Back in 2020, Morgan Stanley estimated housing discrimination and lack of access to homeownership has cost nearly 800,000 jobs across the board. $400 billion dollars in tax revenue also gone and nearly five million people prevented from owning homes. Those distortions affect everyone in a community, not just black people.