Despite rebound, minorities still hardest hit by U.S. housing bust

[jakeXT]

(Reuters) - Despite a rebound in the U.S. housing market, African-American and Latino neighborhoods remain disproportionately impacted by the real estate crash, with many minorities still underwater on their mortgages, a report showed on Thursday.

The city with the highest rate of underwater homeowners - at 56 percent - is Hartford, Connecticut, where 83 percent of the population is Latino or African American, according to the report by the University of California, Berkeley's Haas Institute for a Fair and Inclusive Society.

Newark, New Jersey came in second with 54 percent of homeowners underwater and 89 percent of the population either Latino or African American, according to the report, which matched 2013 housing data to race and income data for zip codes across the country.

California, the most populous U.S. state, was home to 17 of the country's most underwater zip codes in 2013, the report shows. The predominantly Hispanic Inland Empire region has been hit especially hard, with 35 percent of homeowners underwater, meaning they owed more on mortgages than their homes are worth.

...

The report comes as Richmond is pushing to implement a controversial program that would allow local municipalities to take over and restructure underwater loans and convert vacant foreclosure properties into affordable housing.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/05/08/us-usa-housing-minorities-idUSBREA4713020140508

[Kelvin Mace]

1. And they will be hit even harder in the next "housing bust"

already in progress.