Daily Money: Black homeownership rate on the decline; who benefits when billionaires donate?

It's Monday. Here we go again, Daily Money readers. Jayme Deerwester back with you. 

More than half a century after the Fair Housing Act was signed into law in 1968, not only is the homeownership gap between white and Black Americans wider than it was in 1960, the homeownership rate of Black Americans is expected to be lower (40%) in 2040 than it was in 2020 (41%), according to a study by the Urban Institute, a Washington, D.C., based research organization focused on upward mobility and equity.

While some of the structural and systemic issues may have been alleviated with the passage of the Fair Housing Act, issues including financial education and awareness can still limit homeownership for lower-income households (a disproportionate share of whom are Black and Hispanic) or trap them into exploitative transactions.

“The story of Black homeownership in the U.S. is a case where they get access and the access is wiped out, and then they get access and the access is wiped out,” says Beryl Satter, professor of history at Rutgers University and the author of Family Properties: Race, Real Estate, and the Exploitation of Black Urban America. “So there's a cycle where African Americans get either no loans from mainstream banks, which push them into purchasing from scavengers and outlying speculators, or the pendulum swings the other way and they get loans that are official, but they are predatory also.”

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Who benefits when billionaires donate their fortunes?

The biggest givers in the nation donated more than $33.4 billion in 2021, according to the Chronicle of Philanthropy, and Forbes estimates that the country's 25 largest donors have given $169 billion over the course of their lives. But when the ultra wealthy give, where do those billions go?

Private foundations are required to give away 5% of their endowment a year, while donor-advised funds have no mandated payout. One criticism of donor-advised funds is that the money can sit there for years before being used, though that's not typically the case, said David Campbell, a professor of public administration at Binghamton University. 

Chuck Collins, director of the Charity Reform Project at the Institute for Policy Studies, said donations to private foundations and donor-advised funds stay under the control of the donor and come with generous tax benefits.  

"Bill Gates is saying he’s going to give $20 billion, but his intention is to pay down quickly, not have it sit forever in his foundation," Collins said. "But typically, people think of foundations as a sort of multigenerational affair. ... Essentially, wealthy people opt out of paying their taxes, reduce their taxes, and create an intermediary that they continue to control."

🎧 Mood music 🎧

Today, we travel back 30 years to 1992, when En Vogue was calling out people for making assumptions about Black women's finances.

"So I'm a sista, buy things with cash, that really doesn't mean that all my credit's bad. So why dispute me and waste my time? Because you really think the price is high for me."

About The Daily Money

Each weekday, The Daily Money delivers the best consumer news from USA TODAY. We break down financial news and provide the TLDR version: how decisions by the Federal Reserve, government and companies impact you. It even comes with its own Spotify playlist. It features nearly every song quoted here.

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