Racial homeownership gap worst in Minnesota
The housing market rebound in Minnesota is leaving minorities behind.
The homeownership rate among thousands of racial minorities lags further behind their white neighbors than in any other state, the Star Tribune reports.
While 77.5 percent of white residents owned their home in 2011, the rate was just 38 percent of minorities, according to census data analyzed by the Amherst H. Wilder Foundation.
Minnesota’s homeownership gap between whites and communities of color is the worst in the country.
The Star Tribune says state anti-discrimination officials and civil rights advocates blame the drop in homeownership among minorities on bad lending practices during the housing boom that made them especially vulnerable to foreclosure.
Even though many of those practices have been outlawed, minority homeownership hasn’t bounced back because many of those affected have also lost jobs or fallen victim to mortgage modification schemes, according to the newspaper.
