Downturn widens racial wealth gap

[Madisonian]

Just think how much more wealth many of those people would have had Barney Franks and the rest of the congresscritters not talked them into believing they could buy houses that anyone in their right mind knew they could not afford.
Democrats have been screwing over minorities since before the Civil War. The greatest con ob they have ever pulled is getting the minorities to believe they have stopped.

[Novaheart]

One always has to watch out for "special" phraseology. Note that this isn't comparing average household income, but "median wealth".

People who are trying to make something look worse compare "median" rather than "average" and in this case it's teemed up with the nebulous term "wealth".

Sure, white people are more likely to live in white neighborhoods which are more likely to be worth more than black or hispanic neighborhoods in any given market (with some fairly rare exceptions). And whites are probably more likely to be homeowners both for economic reasons and because the white population is older than the black or hispanic populations, meaning more blacks and hispanics rent, ie have a net worth of their car and clothes.

And as always, "hispanics" is used to mean nonwhite. Tell that to Americans of Cuban ancestry who live in the once Anglo Saxon and Jewish strongholds of Florida and wield considerable (If not directly taxable) wealth.

[Odysseus]

One always has to watch out for "special" phraseology. Note that this isn't comparing average household income, but "median wealth".

People who are trying to make something look worse compare "median" rather than "average" and in this case it's teemed up with the nebulous term "wealth".

Sure, white people are more likely to live in white neighborhoods which are more likely to be worth more than black or hispanic neighborhoods in any given market (with some fairly rare exceptions). And whites are probably more likely to be homeowners both for economic reasons and because the white population is older than the black or hispanic populations, meaning more blacks and hispanics rent, ie have a net worth of their car and clothes.

And as always, "hispanics" is used to mean nonwhite. Tell that to Americans of Cuban ancestry who live in the once Anglo Saxon and Jewish strongholds of Florida and wield considerable (If not directly taxable) wealth.

There's also a rural/urban divide here, which is both economic and cultural. Suburban and rural homes are more likely to be purchased by the occupants than rented, while urban homes are more likely to be rented than purchased. This is because urban housing tends toward multi-family dwellings while suburban and rural housing tends toward single family dwellings, and because urban real estate is more expensive than suburban and rural. Finally, urban populations are more likely to be transient than suburban and rural populations, due to the nature of the job markets. Given this, and the fact that Blacks and Latinos are more predominantly urban than whites and Asians, it's obvious that they would have lower rates of home ownership and therefore less equity, which is the major difference between the net worths of the groups.