(Courtesy of NPR): Fifty years after the repeal of Jim Crow, many African-Americans still live in segregated ghettos in the country's metropolitan areas. Richard Rothstein, a research associate at the Economic Policy Institute, has spent years studying the history of residential segregation in America.  Rothstein talks about the Federal Housing Administration's "overtly racist policies" in the 1930s, '40s and '50s. MORE

(Courtesy of NHC; Rebekah King): Ten million families experienced foreclosures during the housing crisis, which means 10 million families had to move. While most families remained in the same metropolitan area, their local migration patterns slowed declines in segregation between blacks and whites by 19 percent and between whites and Hispanics by 50 percent. According to a recent study, minorities who experienced foreclosures moved to more distressed neighborhoods. White homeowners were the first to leave places hit by foreclosure and did not move to more distressed neighborhoods. These trends have led to many neighborhoods becoming more segregated than they would have been if the foreclosure crisis had not happened. Racial segregation between blacks and whites has been declining for decades, but slowly, and not evenly across the country. This recent increase is small but significant, and in areas hit particularly hard by the crisis, the increase was fairly large, like in Las Vegas and Sacramento. MORE  STUDY

(Courtesy of Housing Matters): Commuting time is the strongest factor limiting upward mobility for those living in poverty, according to an ongoing Harvard study. Transportation has a stronger correlation to mobility than crime or school test scores, the study indicates. A separate study from New York University found that areas with insufficient access to mass transit had the highest rates of unemployment and the lowest incomes. MORE 
 

The U.S. Homeownership Rate Is Slow to Recover 

(Courtesy of NHC): About 9.3 million homeowners went through foreclosure or were forced to sell at a loss in the wake of the housing crash. Only 950,000 have purchased again, and 1.5 million are likely to make a purchase in the next five years. According to a National Association of REALTORS® study, the tight credit market continues to keep many potential homebuyers out of the U.S. real estate market. At the end of last year, the U.S. homeownership rate fell to a two-decade low of 64 percent. A report released by Goldman Sachs Group Inc. projects that the homeownership rate will fall to 63.5 percent by 2016, and then plateau for years. Even individuals who have repaired their credit will face challenges to homeownership in areas that have recovered and are becoming increasingly unaffordable, such as coastal California.  MORE

GALLUP: Fewer Non-Homeowners Expect to Buy

In the U.S., 41% of non-homeowners have no plans to buy a home; homeownership is down to 61% -the lowest in nearly 15 years; and 34% of Americans rent their primary residence.  MORE

Drop in Homeownership Increases Wealth Gap 

(Courtesy of Housing Matters); The wealth gap in the U.S. is growing in part due to more people renting instead of buying homes. Homeowners are seeing their wealth increase as housing prices rise. Meanwhile, renters must absorb increasing rents that eat away their net worth. MORE

(Courtesy of Housing Matters):  Half of Americans ages 19 to 36 -- the millennial generation -- rent their homes today, but 70% want to own a home by 2020, according to a survey by the Urban Land Institute. MORE
 

(Courtesy of NHC; Amanda Gold and Ethan Handelman): Since 2012, HUD has sold $3.7 billion of nonperforming loans to third parties as a way to minimize government losses and provide flexibility to aid homeowners in communities hurt by foreclosures. In new changes to the Distressed Asset Stabilization Program (DASP), HUD will require servicers to delay foreclosures for one year and evaluate all borrowers for a mortgage workout. Previously, servicers who purchased distressed loans could foreclose after six months and were encouraged but not required to evaluate borrowers for workouts. MORE