Part of the American dream, is the ability to demonstrate in one's material assets, that a given individual or family, has been successful, and whether or not you own your own residence, is widely seen to be that dividing line. There is something about being king or queen of your own castle, that separates you from those that do not, for a lot of good and practical reasons, of which, the Bill of Rights to our Constitution, makes it clear that one's property is secured from unreasonable searches and seizures by the state, and when you live under the aegis of a landlord or similar, you can easily find that such protections are mitigated, substantially.
While people work for many reasons, one of the foremost reasons why people strive to work hard and to achieve, is to be able to at the end of day, return home to the sanctuary that they are owners of. That is why home ownership is so imperative to so many Americans, but the racial divide, between whites and all minorities in regards to home ownership is quite pronounced, which, given that whites in aggregate have more income, have more assets, and so forth, should be expected, what shouldn't be expected is that the gap between whites and blacks in regards to home ownership, has widen not contracted since 1980.
According to census.gov, the home ownership rate for blacks before the landmark Civil Rights Act was passed in 1964 and the fair housing bill which was passed in 1968, was only 34.5% in 1950, but by 1970 it had risen to 41.6%, and then in 1980 it had increased to 44.4%, whereas for whites as reported by bu.edu their ownership rate in 1980 was 67.7%. The black home ownership rate then began to decline so that in 1990 it was just 43.4%, though in the year 2000, as reported by infoplease.com black ownership had risen to 47.2%, while peaking at 49.1% in 2004, whereas today as reported by census.gov the black home ownership rate for the 3rd quarter of 2016 was just 41.3% as compared to the white ownership in the same period of time being at 71.9%. In taking a look at the rate of home ownership between whites and blacks in 1980, the percentage gap between these two, wasin percentage points, 23.3, whereas in the 3rd quarter of 2016, that percentage point gap was 30.6.
This signifies that since 1980, blacks have materially regressed in their black ownership rate, and since that period of time, the gap between black and white home ownership has significantly widened. This would indicate that despite all the governmental regulations for non-discrimination and fairness for this, that, and the other, something fundamentally is wrong in America and this is reflected in the fact that rather than blacks making progress in narrowing what has always been a massive gap in home ownership between blacks and whites in this country, things have gotten progressively worse.
Additionally and importantly, there isn't any real reason to expect that this will somehow correct itself in the near future of generations to come, the bottom line is the system is broken and that is reflected in the huge disparity of home ownership between blacks and whites.
America prides itself as being seen as that land of opportunity, but the proof is in the pudding, and that clearly demonstrates that America and its institutions in virtually all aspects, favors those it has always favored, and leaves blacks with that promissory note, still in default.