ndrosen

There was an interview in Reason with Richard Rothstein about discrimination in housing. He has written a book saying that it didn't just happen because of voluntary choices and private discrimination, but because government agencies actually required places like Levittown to be white-only, with restrictive covenants, as a condition of obtaining the credit that enabled them to be built. There's more, but that's one important point.

This meant, among other things, that a white veteran of World War Two could buy a house in the suburbs, and build wealth for his family, while a black veteran could not, even if he was theoretically eligible for a loan as well. This meant that inequalities were passed on, because the black veteran would then be less able to meet emergency medical expenses, or help his child go to college. So what can we do about it now? How do we, or can we, compensate blacks whose grandparents got a raw deal because of government-mandated discrimination?

I will note that "building wealth through homeownership" tends to mean "getting rich through appropriating increases in land value."