Home ownership declines for most minorities, particularly black households.
The collapse of the housing bubble has further widened the home ownership inequality gap.
Black households, as well as the poorest households and those headed by high school dropouts, did not benefit much from the housing boom, but got hit hard by the subsequent bust, a new analysis of Census data by Fordham University Professor Emily Rosenbaum has found.
During the 1990s, blacks and Hispanics made gains that narrowed the home ownership gap. This rise was partly a result of the Clinton administration pushing for increased ownership rates among the traditionally underserved.
That effort, however, largely stalled for blacks and lower-income folks in the first half of the next decade. Meanwhile, Latinos and Asians, made significant gains during the bubble.
Then came the housing bust. The collapse hit blacks the hardest, pushing them well below their home ownership rate at the start of the decade, Rosenbaum found. Some 48.3% of…
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What this means was highlighted by Bernanke at hears this week: home loans were made with no effort to demonstrate that folks who received the loans could support the financial commitment. The bad paper that resulted was bundled and resold and once the lack of real equity was determined the bubble burst as should have been expected. This kind of feel good manipulation of capital markets by politicians historically falters and drags all the good paper down with it. The economics of housing were well established and the rising tide lifted all boats that made economic sense. There will be little or no progress in home ownership until genuine market forces are reestablished. This is of course basic Econ 101.