Adding to a story we posted July 4, 2013from Harvard University’s annual Joint Center for Housing Studies, the report reveals 42.3 million families (37 percent of the nation’s total) pay more than 30 percent of their income for housing, including 20.6 million who pay more than 50 percent of their income for housing. Between 2007 and 2011, 2.4 million homes changed from owner-occupied to renter-occupied, well above the 900,000 rental unit starts during these four years. 258,000 new rentals came onto the market in 2012, the highest number since 2004, as MHProNews has learned from thewestsidegazette. Meanwhile, the report states racial disparity in homeownership continues: White homeownership stands at 73 percent, but only 44 percent of African-Americans and 46 percent of Hispanics are homeowners. In addition, in 2011 despite historic low interest rates, African-Americans were denied mortgage loans 37 percent of the time, while the rate for white borrowers was 14 percent.
