Median Black wealth was about 14% of median White wealth in 1992. In 2022, it was 15% – and the wealthiest 80% of Black households held less wealth than the median White household. Latinos, meanwhile, made comparably significant gains – but the 9 percentage point narrowing of the Latino-White wealth gap was a paltry return for 30 years of public policy efforts to expand opportunity.
The persistently massive gaps in wealth and homeownership are just the beginning of the worryraised in the report. What little progress was made over those three decades was also overly reliant upon owning a home – which only 46% of Black America does – and on that home not losing value.
Black family wealth is dangerously fragile, the analysis shows, because Black household net worths are far more tied up in home values. White wealth is far more diversified and therefore far more resilient to economic shocks.
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