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Recently Released: New Research on Housing Discrimination

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While the housing market may be opening up for African-American and Hispanic homebuyers and renters, a recent report from HUD shows that significant barriers still exist.

"Discrimination in Metropolitan Housing Markets: National Results from Phase 1 of the Housing Discrimination Study" is based on the latest national Housing Discrimination Study (HDS2000), the third in a series of studies commissioned by HUD that measure patterns of discrimination in urban housing markets. The report details Phase I of HDS2000, in which 4,600 paired tests were conducted to measure adverse treatment for African Americans and Hispanics in home rental and sales markets.

The paired test method involves two individuals with identical credentials - one minority and one white - who each respond to housing advertisements to assess different treatment by sales and rental agents. By implementing methodologies similar to those used in the last HDS in 1989, adverse treatment can be compared across time periods.

Results indicate that the incidence of discrimination has generally declined since 1989 (the levels remained the same only for Hispanic renters). Yet, despite the decline, discrimination is still a pervasive problem for African-American and Hispanic home seekers. Incidences of adverse treatment were encountered nationwide, although some metropolitan areas fared better and some worse than others.

Key findings include:
· Non-Hispanic whites were favored in more than half of the rental tests (52.7 percent), while Hispanics were favored in only 37.6 percent of tests. A consistency measure (reflecting the extent to which the non-minority group was favored across 14 different indicators) also shows that non-Hispanic whites were more likely to be favored.
· Whites were also more likely to receive favorable treatment than African Americans in rental tests. Whites were favored in 49 percent of the tests, while African Americans were favored in 41.1 percent of cases.
· In sales tests, Hispanic and non-Hispanic whites both had high levels of preferential treatment, but the difference was not statistically significant. The measure of consistency, however, was significant, showing that non-Hispanic whites were more likely to be favored in tests than were Hispanics.
· Whites received preferable treatment in 53.1 percent of sales tests, while African Americans were favored in 44.8 percent of the tests. Whites were consistently favored in 17 percent of tests, compared to 12.4 percent for African Americans.

Despite the fact that, in many cases, treatment favoring minority home seekers has increased since 1989, the results show that non-minorities were still more likely to receive preferential treatment.

"Discrimination in Metropolitan Housing Markets: National Results from Phase 1 of the Housing Discrimination Study" is available at https://www.huduser.gov/portal/publications/hsgfin/phase1.html.


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