Thread by @NBCNews

The American dream while Black: ‘Locked in a vicious cycle’

Homeownership is supposed to be the gateway to the American dream. Black Americans have been denied access. nbcnews.to/30nrhCN (1/8) #NBCNewsThreads

One of the clearest examples of ongoing discrimination exists in the housing market, where the gap in homeownership rates between Black and white Americans is wider than it was before the Civil Rights movement, advocates, scholars and officials say. (2/8)

76 percent of white households owned their homes at the end of the second quarter of 2020, compared to just 47 percent of Black households, according to the US Census Bureau. (3/8)

The consequences of not owning a home or of becoming a homeowner later in life are enormous, experts say. It often leaves a family unable to reach other pillars of the American dream, like tapping into home equity to start a business or pay for a child's college education. (4/8)

America's housing gap ballooned after the New Deal. Many of the programs, such as the Federal Housing Administration, made buying a home much more affordable for white families. nbcnews.to/30nrhCN (5/8)

Black households were often left out of the homeownership boom because of redlining, a practice in which the FHA refused to back loans in areas that were occupied predominantly by people of color. (6/8)

When Black buyers are approved for mortgages, they remain more likely than any other racial group to be charged higher interest rates and to be steered toward predatory loans. (7/8)

"Most Black people can't say that — they cannot say their parents and their grandparents, aunts and uncles all owned homes," said Ebony Jones, a Black woman who struggled to secure a home equity loan.

"So, to this day, our American Dream looks like an isolated hope." (8/8)