Despite a general upswing in economic fortunes for many Americans in recent months, the economic rebound and housing recovery largely have left black and Latino households behind, according to a recent report from the National Association of Real Estate Brokers.
NAREB’s report, “The State of Housing in Black America,” states that homeownership rates for black Americans have dropped from a high of just under 50 percent in 2004 to just above 43 percent today.
Home prices in general are on the rise, up 23 percent from the bottom in March 2012, according to RealtyTrac, a real estate data source. July data showed a 38 percent decrease of foreclosure filings year over year.
However, the NAREB report shows that black Americans are still 70 percent more likely to have been foreclosed upon, even when controlling for income. And the private housing market has been “effectively closed” to people of color because of stricter credit score and down payment requirements.
This negative impact was a result of “unregulated, high-cost and unsustainable subprime loans during the bubble,” which the report’s authors say were targeted at