Watch Why Race Matters Ep. 3: Home Ownership: Breaking It Down

Home Ownership: Breaking It Down

"I feel like there's this stigma out there that, as Black women, we're loud, we're aggressive, or if we're not loud and aggressive, they expect us to sit there and be quiet and allow whatever to occur with no voice. When making an investment like building a home, whether or not is for personal or investment properties, be your voice, have a voice and use your voice and don't be afraid to use your voice."—Myesha Thompson

Episode | Related Video | Transcript

Home Ownership: Breaking It Down

Clip: S2 Ep3 | 1m 49s

How decades of housing segregation still affect Black home ownership rates today.

GUESTS

Tiffany Malone

Tiffany Malone is a real estate consultant, affordable housing advocate, a change agent for racial justice in the real estate industry, and a loud voice for building generational wealth for Black families. Tiffany works with buyer and seller clients in the greater Madison WI area as a licensed Realtor at Alvarado Real Estate Group and is one of the co-creators of OWN IT: Building Black Wealth, an Madison initiative that is changing the game when it comes to educating and creating access to funds for Black and Brown families to build wealth through real estate and homeownership.

Myesha Thompson

Myesha Thompson is a real estate investor and a licensed life insurance and financial advisor in Madison, WI. She takes pride in sharing her experiences from her life and educating minorities on the importance of life insurance, financial literacy, real estate, and personal/business credit. Her hope is to inspire others to learn from her journey and experiences to help them efficiently and effectively conqueror their own journey. She works for the state of Wisconsin at the Department of Health Services where she serves as the point of contact for the state Foodshare and Badgercare outreach programs.

TRANSCRIPT

Home ownership has been described as a core component of the American Dream. The National Housing Act of 1934, signed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, founded the Federal Housing Administration or FHA to improve housing conditions during the Great Depression.

This access did not extend, however, to Black and other historically marginalized groups. And instead furthered housing discrimination through a policy known as redlining, marking in red on government-sponsored maps where Black and other communities of color lived or lived nearby. This indicated to appraisers that these neighborhoods were too risky to insure mortgages.

At the same time, the FHA subsidized the production of new suburban communities for white families with the requirement that none of the homes be sold to Blacks. This meant Black families and other families of color were relegated to urban housing projects.

The Fair Housing Act of 1968 sought to end these discriminatory practices, but the legacy of redlining remains. In the first quarter of 2022, the national home ownership rate for white families was approximately 74% compared to 44% for Black families. The racial home ownership gap is even greater in Wisconsin, and it continues to grow.

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