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Historically, the rate of black homeownership has been low compared to nonblacks. The purpose of this study is to assess the extent to which levels of black homeownership are determined by selected social factors and racial discrimination. The findings reveal that blacks are less likely to be homeowners in nearly every sociodemographic category. The one exception is the finding that elderly blacks are more likely than blacks and nonblacks in all other age categories to be homeowners.

This research seeks to understand the degree to which credit scores of new business startups are influenced by racial or gender discrimination. It examines the degree to which access to business credit lines is influenced by racial and genderrelated factors that go beyond would-be borrowers' credit scores. Using credit data from new startups, the analysis finds that, when controlling for firm and human capital characteristics, Black-owned startups receive lower than expected business credit scores. Whites are more favorably treated in credit score determination than are African Americans with the same firm characteristics and owner characteristics. Moreover, Whites are more favorably treated when it comes to access to credit lines than are African Americans, Latinos, and Asians with the same firm characteristics, owner characteristics, and credit scores. Men are more favorably treated when it comes to access to credit lines than are women. A Blinder-Oaxaca decomposition suggests that credit lines for Black-owned businesses would more than double, Latino-owned businesses' lines of credit would nearly triple, Asian-owned businesses' lines of credit would more than triple, and those where the primary owners are women would be more than twice as large if their business lines of credit were determined in the same way as those for businesses owned primarily by Whites and by men. The implications of these results are discussed.

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The effects of race, class, and residential segregation on housing values continue to be a major focus of sociological research. Nevertheless, there has yet to be a study that places these factors in the context of the great recession of 2008 and 2009. Accordingly, the purpose of this work is to assess the extent to which the great recession affected housing values for African Americans and whites relative to the joint effects of race, class, and residential segregation. The following research questions are addressed: (1) How do segregation and socioeconomic status (SES) affect racial differences in housing values? (2) What were the levels of racial disparity in housing values before, during, and after the great recession? and (3) Were the housing values of higher status African Americans insulated from the negative impact of segregation and the great recession compared with their lower status counterparts? Using the Integrated Public Use Micro-data Series, the 2010 metropolitan area dissimilarity and population density scores, and hierarchical linear modeling, the findings revealed that the great recession exacerbated racial differences in housing values most in the higher SES categories. Higher status African Americans were more disadvantaged relative to comparable whites than lower status African Americans compared with similar whites in terms of housing values. The article concludes with a discussion of the implications of the findings.

African Americans continue to represent one of the most disadvantaged groups in the United States, lagging behind whites on most measures of well-being. Most explanations for the black-white disparity focus on the continued effects of racial discrimination. Other explanations attribute disadvantage to differences in social class origins or family structures. This study provides a critical test of the “racial discrimination,” “social class,” and “family structure” perspectives in regard to family income using data from the 1968 and 1988 Current Population Surveys. Major findings include: 1) race continued to have a negative effect on family income after controls in both 1968 and 1988; 2) race declined in importance by a very modest amount from 1968 to 1988; 3) in both 1968 and 1988, the negative effect of race was stronger for higher-status African Americans than for lower-status African Americans; and 4) the negative effect of race was greater for married-couple families than for female-headed families. Explanations for the findings are offered.

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