The Great Home Divide

Here's another Gem from my very own Windy City (which is living up to its name today as the fall leaves blow down the street). Cheryl L. Reed and Monifa Thomas of the Chicago Sun-Times report that home values in African-American neighborhoods don't appreciate as quickly as those in white neighborhoods, even when the homes are of comparable quality. In "Blacks Hurt by Gap in Home Values, " Reed and Thomas use U.S. Census and Realtor data to show that this disparity in home values makes it harder for blacks to accumulate wealth. One startling fact from this story: While black workers make 78 cents for every dollar that white workers make, black assets total 10 cents for every dollar of assets owned by whites. Today's story is the first in a three-part series the Sun-Times is running called "The Middle Class Divide." I'll confess that I'm partial toward Thomas' work because she's a former student of mine -- way to go Monifa!
www.suntimes.com/output/news/cst-nws-bmcmain13.html