The ghettoization of black Americans hasn’t been reversed

Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson testifies on Capitol Hill in March 2018. (Kevin Lamarque/Reuters) By Charles Lane Opinion writer April 9 Email the author Fifty years ago last week, an assassin’s bullet claimed the life of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., and Washington, among other cities, erupted in violent protest. Fifty years ago this week, the Continue Reading

Fifty Years After MLK, Cities Must Confront Racial Equity Through Policy

Today, we remember the defining figure of the Civil Rights Era, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. On the fiftieth anniversary of his assassination, leaders and communities across the country are taking the opportunity to reflect on our nation’s history, the progress we’ve made, and how much work we have yet to do. From Ferguson Continue Reading

50 years after Kerner and King, racism still matters

BY DERRICK JOHNSON, OPINION CONTRIBUTOR — 04/04/18 09:30 AM EDT 30 THE VIEWS EXPRESSED BY CONTRIBUTORS ARE THEIR OWN AND NOT THE VIEW OF THE HILL © Getty Images “Segregation and poverty have created in the racial ghetto a destructive environment totally unknown to most white Americans. What white Americans have never fully understood — but what Continue Reading

King died 50 years ago fighting against economic injustice

More than 50 people gathered to honor Martin Luther King Jr.’s legacy of support for worker rights at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Concord on Wednesday, April 4, 2018, on the 50th anniversary of King’s assassination. (ELIZABETH FRANTZ / Monitor staff) Elizabeth    By EUGENE SCOTT  The Washington Post Wednesday, April 04, 2018 Fifty years ago Continue Reading

Black homeownership is as low as it was when housing discrimination was legal

By Michelle Singletary April 5 I was scrolling through my Twitter feed and was stopped cold by a tweet about black homeownership rates. The tweet said the gains made since the passage of the Fair Housing Act in 1968 have all been erased. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/get-there/wp/2018/04/05/black-homeownership-is-as-low-as-it-was-when-housing-discrimination-was-legal/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.09f4025c1206 “We’ve made important progress since 1968, but we can’t claim to have vanquished housing Continue Reading

Here are 10 things the GSEs did to improve access to credit in 2017

  Agency releases annual scorecard on Fannie, Freddie https://www.housingwire.com/articles/42974-fhfa-here-are-10-things-the-gses-did-to-improve-access-to-credit-in-2017 March 29, 2018 Kelsey Ramírez The Federal Housing Finance Agency released its annual progress report summarizing the activities of the GSEs in 2017. As part of the 2014 Strategic Plan for the Conservatorships of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the companies have three requirements they must meet each year. 1. Maintain, Continue Reading

East Bay real estate industry sorely lacks diversity, but there’s ‘light at the end of the tunnel’

By Janis Mara March 30, 2018, 8 a.m. Angelo Raymundo, a residential real estate agent with Red Oak Realty in Oakland, is actively trying to encourage other Asians to enter the field. Photo: Courtesy Angelo Raymundo Steve Peterson regularly brokers multimillion-dollar commercial real estate deals in the Bay Area and Sacramento. He’s the president and CEO of Infinity Continue Reading

Buying a home is easier if you’re white

That’s according to a new study of mortgage approval rates by the online real estate website Zillow. The study found that white people who apply for a conventional mortgage are denied just over 10% of the time. By contrast, blacks who apply for the same loans are denied nearly 28% of the time, while Hispanics Continue Reading

For The Black Middle Class, Housing Crisis And History Collude To Dash Dreams

Grattan (left) and Evelyn Betancourt stand in front of their home in Fort Washington, Md., in one of the wealthiest majority-black counties in the United States: Prince George’s, just east of Washington, D.C. But the reality, Grattan says, is “that many people here, even though they’ve lived here for many years, are fighting to save Continue Reading

The Steady Rise of Renting

The Great Housing Reset marches on, especially in superstar cities and prominent tech hubs. Writing in the wake of the great financial crisis of 2008, I argued that the ultimate impact of the crash would be a “Great Reset,” as the U.S. gradually shifted away from its decades-long obsession with suburban homeownership and toward a greater role for Continue Reading

Housing and Housing Finance

Are gains in black homeownership history? Black History Month celebrates the progress toward racial equality the United States has achieved and reminds us of the work that remains. Gains in black homeownership have been hard won, which amplifies our concern that in the last 15 years, black homeownership rates have declined to levels not seen Continue Reading

In fair housing, residential integration is key – and it’s up to you

Due to this systemic discrimination and policy failures, homeownership among people of color has barely changed in 50 years. (Star-Ledger file photo)   By Star-Ledger Guest Columnist By Demelza Baer    Fifty years ago, when President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Fair Housing Act of 1968 into law, he proclaimed, “We have passed many civil rights pieces Continue Reading

Money: Sobering Stats on African-American Financial Progress and Wealth

Late last year, The Washington Post wrote that African Americans were the only group that showed no economic improvement since 2000. sThey based their conclusions on CENSUS data. This year there was even more sobering news in a report by the Economic Policy Institute (EPI). The new study issued last week found “no progress” for Continue Reading

Bias in Real Estate Topic At NAREB Meet

Real Estate Brokers Hear Plan for Fair Housing

The Early History of NAREB by W.D. Morrison Jr.

Minority Homeownership Continues to Lag, Reports Say

Researchers find disparity in rate of ownership between black families and white, especially in the Northeast and Midwest Overall U.S. homeownership rate rose to 64.2% in the fourth quarter of 2017, but some minority families have struggled to recover from the foreclosure crisis. PHOTO: JOE RAEDLE/GETTY IMAGES By Laura Kusisto Feb. 27, 2018 4:31 p.m. ET Minority Continue Reading

50 years after the Kerner Commission

African Americans are better off in many ways but are still disadvantaged by racial inequality Report • By Janelle Jones, John Schmitt, and Valerie Wilson • February 26, 2018 The year 1968 was a watershed in American history and black America’s ongoing fight for equality. In April of that year, Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in Memphis and riots Continue Reading

Kept out: Loophole in law for the poor spurs gentrification

5 Reasons To Promote Black Home Ownership In America.

(ThyBlackMan.com) After hitting a 50 year low in black home ownership during the housing crisis, the numbers are finally on the rise again. Still, nationally, a little more than 40% of African-Americans are home owners. Considering today’s market, we should be promoting black home ownership for many reasons including investing in our futures. Here are the top reasons to educate Continue Reading