It used to be that Detroit and Michigan were places where black families made progress on home ownership compared to the rest of the country. That’s no longer the case.
A new report from the Urban Institute chronicles homeownership rates for African Americans in Michigan. It says they’ve declined dramatically over the last 18 years, from 60% of African Americans owning homes in 2000 to 41% in 2016.
Overall, home ownership among all races declined in Michigan from 79% in 2000 to 76% in 2016.
There were fewer than one thousand mortgages written in the city of Detroit last year, a city of more than 650,000 people. Home loans are only being written in a few Detroit neighborhoods, while the rest of the purchases are happening with cash, usually by out of state and out of country investors.
