Gap Between Black, White Homeownership Is Huge

The nation's homeownership rate appears to be stabilizing as people rebound from the 2007 recession that left millions unemployed and home values underwater, but a new report finds that African-Americans aren't sharing in the recovery. The report by Harvard University's Joint Center for Housing Studies said the disparity between whites and blacks is at its highest in 70-plus years of data. By 2016, the African-American homeowner rate had fallen to 42.2% and lagged 29.7 percentage points behind whites, nearly a percentage point higher than in 2015, per the AP.

Experts say reasons range from historic underemployment and low wages to a recession-related foreclosure crisis that hit black communities particularly hard. In 2004, the pinnacle of US homeownership, three-quarters of whites and nearly half of blacks owned homes, according to the Harvard study. Now, a lack of affordable housing and stricter lending are making it harder for first-time buyers to obtain what traditionally has been considered an essential part of the American dream and a way to build wealth. An AP analysis of Census Bureau statistics shows some pockets of the Midwest and California had the lowest homeownership rates for African-Americans, while some areas of the South had the highest. More details. (More homeownership stories.)