Biden administration says it will address racial inequity in home appraisals

Jun 2, 2021
The government plans to use fair housing laws and regulatory action to address the racial disparity in home valuations.
President Joe Biden lays out policy proposals aimed at narrowing the racial wealth gap during a speech in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
Brandon Bell/Getty Images

Overcoming fear as a first-time homebuyer

May 25, 2021
“It’s been very empowering for me, even though it has been very difficult,” says Ko Bragg, a journalist based in New Orleans.
Ko Bragg, one of the 2.38 million Americans who purchased a home for the first time in 2020, inside her New Orleans house.
Courtesy Ko Bragg

Grandmother's foreclosed home tests new California law

May 6, 2021
The law gives tenants and nonprofits the opportunity to match a bid made at a foreclosure auction and purchase a property.
Jocelyn Foreman poses with a community land trust agreement during a signing ceremony and celebration at Malcolm X Elementary School in Berkeley on April 23.
Beth LaBerge/KQED

More homeowners are back to paying their mortgages

May 3, 2021
But the recovery has been unequal. Black homeowners are at a higher risk of foreclosure when forbearance rules expire, one nonprofit says.
Despite recent trends, more than 2 million mortgages are still in forbearance.
Chainarong Prasertthai via Getty Images

How homeowners have gained a financial advantage during the pandemic

Sep 10, 2020
During the Great Recession, owning a house could sink you. Now, it's a life raft.
A house for sale in South Pasadena, California, in April.
Frederic J. Brown/AFP via Getty Images

Homeowners had amassed record equity as crisis began

Jul 6, 2020
Housing wealth and other protections advantage owners over renters.
A neighborhood in San Francisco. Home values have only kept rising as buyers compete for a limited supply of houses.
Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

Oyler School is helping more of its families become homeowners

Oct 17, 2019
A partnership with Habitat for Humanity aims to double the ownership rate.
Habitat for Humanity bought these houses to renovate for families in Lower Price Hill.
Amy Scott/Marketplace

For public good, not for profit.

Racial disparities in home appreciation values may perpetuate a homeownership gap

Jul 17, 2019
A study explores reasons some African Americans may be at a disadvantage when trying to build home equity.
David McNew/Getty Images

Remodeling booms as housing stock ages

Mar 14, 2019
Spending on home improvement has increased by 50 percent since the recession.
Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

Closing the homeownership gap in Houston and beyond

Jan 30, 2019
The National Association of Real Estate Brokers, a black trade group, is on a mission to add 2 million new black homeowners nationally in five years.
Nationally, the rate of black homeownership is less than 42 percent, compared to a rate of about 73 percent among white households.
Cameron Spencer/Getty Images