Black homeownership is systematically less profitable than white homeownership because of neighborhood effects.

Evidence

Ultimately, homeownership in America is a bad deal for most black Americans. Choosing the home that gives you the best shot at financial success means choosing to be a racial outlier, with all the slights and insults associated with that. And if you choose what John calls “the village of black community life,” it is more likely to be a financial failure. White Americans are (and have always been) more likely to be homeowners, and their homes appreciate (with tax-free gain) because the neighborhoods they live in are attractive to other white American homebuyers. When black Americans, who face increased obstacles in becoming homeowners in the first place, do buy, the market disadvantages the neighborhoods they live in. Their homes do not appreciate the way that white people’s homes do, so if they do sell for a gain, their gain is significantly less and they are more likely to sell their homes at a nondeductible loss. Once again, it’s a matter of personal choice—who you want your neighbors to be—but tax policies reward most white taxpayers’ personal choices and punish those made by black ones. — Dorothy A. Brown, Getting to Reparations, 1283

Categorization

• XREF: This is the saturated-system harm mechanism at the neighborhood level, connecting to the broader Whiteness of Wealth diagnosis and the ‘choice’ frame already engaging prior chapters.