Homeownership gap between White and Black families is at all-time high

The gap between white and black families has always been wide and now it is at an all-time high. Exeterseus is live for us in New York City tonight and Axel how big is the gap that black homeowners face? The gap right now in 2023 is about 30% at points and it's even higher than it was in the 1960s. And when we asked the experts about the

barriers potential black homeowners face today, they told us that the list is a very long but some of those that they mentioned are in mortgage rates which is determined by credits course and also the lack of generational wealth which at some point could help someone buying a home. The American dream supposedly includes owning a home though for many that is far from reality. It's more difficult

for black individuals to access home ownership than white individual. Historically black families face more barriers when taking the very big step of buying a home. Setbacks generally not the same as white families. It's important that we don't talk about these things as unfortunate like a car accident but we really lean into the fact that they are unjust that inequality doesn't just happen. It is manufactured through

choices. The urban institute says that the disparity between white and black homeownership is about 30% at points right now in 2023. It was about 27% at points in the 1960s and that numbers would have gone down after the Fair Housing Act was passed in 1968. The act was supposed to ban racial discrimination in housing sales and rentals but it continues to be a significant issue. You

don't have the right level of implementation, enforcement and evaluation. You don't actually get to a different type of outcome. And this is what we see in terms of public policy around race in particular. It's essential to say for a down payment. The National Association of Realtors finds black households are more than twice as likely than white households to have student loan debt. Credit score is another

factored banks used to determine who is eligible for a mortgage. According to Robinson, the process is deeply discriminatory as it relies on choices and opportunities and does not account for the resources that people were born into. There's not enough accountability and evaluation of the credit industry. And they're able to operate in ways and block people, exclude people from opportunities as private entities, as entities that are

not accountable and responsible for the decisions that they make. All of us end up being responsible and accountable for them. According to Joint Joy, senior research associate for the Urban Institute, housing disparities, don't just present themselves in the current market, but can be traced back generations. You need more down payment assistance. You need more down payment assistance to buy your first home. So a lot of

young adults who have a home-owning parents and who have a huge housing wealth, they have a greater opportunity to buy their home at their earlier age and life and accumulate wealth. Home ownership is one of the most important sources of building generational wealth. If you buy a home early in age, you're more likely to have higher wealth when you retire. We thought that the trend would

be also unfortunately persistent over time. So we all still pop up BC around like 30 percentage point gap between Black and White Home ownership unless some kind of policy is implemented to close that gap. We can't just be in a just conversation about stopping the harm, but also fixing the harm that was done. In order to close racial homeownership gap, Robinson says in must include more

public policy and clear plans as well as accountability and real consequences for those exploiting the system. And that will require investments. It will require us really looking at how do we not, how do we fix these problems and provide opportunities for communities at scale to deal with the unforgivable past. We have of exploitation of communities of this country reneging on its commitments and in its compact

of redlining of exploitation of targeting of banks. We do collect information in our annual survey. And we ask about experiences in the housing market, such as steering, which still may take place, even though it is illegal to discriminate based on race and housing. Dr. Jessica Lout deput is chief economist at the National Association of Real Tours says that if the current discriminatory practices continue to go

on future generations, it will feel the impact for their children for their grandchildren, moving forward. They may not be able to rely on intergenerational transfers of wealth. And that's what we see for successful home owners and buyers is to be able to transfer down that wealth to future generations. And so that's lost out on. And so that's what we see in the next few years and

other people of callers, there should be an increase in affordable housing and also more regulations over the credit industry. Dell. Axel Tursios for Slav in New York City tonight. Excellent. Thank you very much.