A new study shows Miami's housing inequality for Black homeowners keeps getting worse.
A joint venture between the data company Clever Real Estate and the nonprofit Dream Builders 4 Equality, the study shows the Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach area ranked fourth in a list of 15 U.S. cities with the greatest value disparities between predominantly Black and non-Black ZIP Codes.
The study shows typical property values in South Florida are $269,128 in Black majority ZIP Codes versus $1,556,398 in non-Black majority ZIP Codes — a difference of 478%.
The only three cities with a greater disparity were Flint, Michigan (645%), Kansas City, Missouri/Kansas (516%), and Toledo, Ohio (485%).
According to the study, the typical Black family in the U.S. has about $12,780 in household wealth, compared to $139,300 for white families. Home equity accounts for nearly 30% of total household wealth, according to an August 2020 Census report.
"The overall racial wealth gap in the U.S. is the largest factor impacting property values, because lenders perceive borrowers to carry more risk if they have less money," reads the report, which was written by Michelle Delgado and Francesca Ortegren, the data science and research product manager at Clever Real Estate.
In Miami-Dade, the median income for Black households in Miami-Dade in 2018 was $38,015, compared with $56,527 for households identifying as white, including white Hispanics. Nearly a quarter of Miami's Black population is impoverished, compared with the countywide rate of 16%.
