A recent study by Duke University found
that Latinos and Blacks pay, on average, 3.5 percent more for their homes than
White buyers. The study, which tracked over two million housing transactions in
Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco and Washington D.C., controlled for factors
of income, wealth, and access to credit, but found that none of these factors
could explain the differences in how much more Blacks and Latinos paid. Could racial prejudice account for these
factors?
Senior author of
the study Pat Bayer, said no, “we did not detect the pattern of obvious racial
prejudice on behalf of the sellers. Black and Hispanic sellers sold at similar
premiums to white sellers.” Instead, she attributed the discrepancies to age,
saying that because Black and Latino populations “skew younger” they are more
likely to be first time home-byers, and therefore less experience in
negotiating home prices. She also added that because real estate agents tend to
show minorities “a more limited set of
properties,” they may feel the need to pay more for a house that actually
“suits their needs and tastes.”
This
part of the study confused me. As I read Bayer’s statement, I thought to
myself, “how is that not racist?” If real estate agents are not showing Blacks
and Latinos the same quality houses that they show Whites and that results in
the feeling, on the part of Blacks and Latinos, that they have to pay more, why
was racial prejudice disregarded? In my opinion, racial prejudice seems to be a
definite factor that contributes to the study’s results.
Do you think the factor of racism should be
further considered? If so, why do you think the head of the study disregarded
it? If not, what do you think accounts for the results of the study?
I do believe that whenever a particular group of people are targeted, it should definitely be explored. If Blacks and Latinos are paying more on average, it should be explored. Is it racial based? There could be a possibility that it is but I'm not quite sure. More information and studies would need to be conducted to really see what the deal is. But at the moment, when looking back at the history of the US and the race relations of the country and how race reflects so many different factors, you really do not have much of a choice but to look towards race.
ReplyDeleteI agree that it is difficult to determine what are the exact factors for this. Like you said Darren, because of history, we tend to lean more towards race. Responding to Bayer's statement, it does seem that their are racial prejudices in home buying. Why are minorities shown a different selection of houses than whites? This if anything is racist. Realtors should be "race blind" when selling homes.
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