The housing bubble bursting has worsened disparities among races. Study: Racial wealth gap biggest ever

Worsened by the housing bubble bursting and financial meltdown, the wealth gap between white and black families now is the largest since the government began tracking the data, according to a new survey from the Pew Research Center.

White households on average now earn 20 times more than the typical black family and 18 times more than the average Hispanic family, the study found. The disparities are three times the gap that existed three years ago.


When Pew first began tracking wealth disparity by race in 1984, white families earned 12 times as much as black families.

“What’s pushing the wealth of whites is the rebound in the stock market and corporate savings, while younger Hispanics and African-Americans who bought homes in the last decade — because that was the American dream — are seeing big declines,” Timothy Smeeding, a University of Wisconsin-Madison professor who specializes in income inequality, told The Associated Press.

According to the Pew research, inflation-adjusted median wealth fell by 66 percent among Hispanic households and 53 percent among black households from 2005 through 2009. During the same time period, the study found wealth of white households fell16 percent.

The typical black household had $5,677 in wealth — defined as assets minus debts — in 2009, the typical Hispanic household had $6,325 in wealth, and the typical white household had $113,149, Pew found.

Pew’s data comes from the Census Bureau’s Survey of Income and Program Participation, which it considers the most comprehensive source of data about American household wealth.

This article tagged under: Housing Crisis