This is explained in part by the fact that less-educated minority families had less to lose, on average, than their middle-class peers. But the report also noted that real estate was a factor: Better-educated African American and Latinos were more likely to own homes, and those homes tended to be their primary source of wealth, so when the housing market collapsed, their residences transformed from piggy banks into anchors.
“Declines in the average value of owner-occupied homes among college-educated Hispanic and black families between 2007 and 2013 were 45 percent and 51 percent, respectively,” said the report. “The average value of owner-occupied homes declined 25 percent among college-educated white families and increased 6 percent among college-educated Asian families.”
Maya Rockeymoore, head of Global Policy Solutions, a Washington, D.C.–based policy organization, said that statistic points to another issue minorities face but whites don’t: discrimination and subprime loans in the housing market, which many families use to finance college tuition.
“The evidence shows that the free market is not so free for blacks and Hispanics who were charged disproportionately higher rates compared to similarly situated whites for mortgage products, despite having high incomes and good credit,” Rockeymoore said.
As a result, she said, “this had a devastating impact on their ability to grow and protect their wealth” even before the market crash. “It’s a problem not just for individuals but for entire families of color over generations.”
Article Appeared @http://blackstarjournal.org/?p=4910