Housing Structure and Inequality in the United States (2020)

Since the United States began rebuilding after the desperate years of the Great Depression, people trying to live the so-called “American Dream” have sought to own a home. Yet economic and structural inequalities in the housing market have made this dream a continuous struggle for many Americans. From redlining (denying loans or insurance on account of race) in the 1960s to the Housing Crisis of 2008, recurrent economic troubles, income inequality, racial segregation by income, and outright discrimination have limited access to home-ownership for various disadvantaged populations, more recently leading to these groups’ declining rates of home-ownership (compared with rates of renting) and their elevated rates of homelessness.