Homeownership in Maryland: Confronting the racial inequities

Welcome to Midday. Sitting in for Tom Hall once again is guest host Jayne Miller, the former WBAL-TV reporter and now an independent investigative journalist. Today, Jayne will be looking at the future of Baltimore from two angles: later in the program, the focus will be on the progress of downtown development efforts. She'll be joined by two Baltimore Banner reporters who recently wrote a sobering assessment of the current state of the heart of the city. But before we discuss commercial development, we consider what's happening with residential properties in the city. Last week in his State of the City speech, Mayor Brandon Scott spotlighted the latest initiatives of the Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD) and other agencies to increase Black homeownership in Baltimore. He calls this effort the Middle Neighborhoods Strategy. Here is some of what the mayor said: “Through (the Department of) Housing, Live Baltimore, and the Department of Planning, we're investing $9.7 million toward grant programs to finance home repairs for legacy homeowners and create pathways to homeownership for families with school-aged children...This includes providing 270 grants through our Buy Back the Block initiative to help renters move towards homeownership by offering them $10,000 to buy—or $20,000 to buy and renovate—a home where they currently rent.”                                                       — Baltimore City Mayor Brandon Scott. Can programs like these increase Black homeownership and narrow the gap? Jayne also examines more broadly why the rate of homeownership in Maryland among Black residents is still lagging behind White residents. According to a recent report on race and home buying, Black homeownership for Marylanders in 2021 was 52% while White homeownership in the state was 78%. What factors are contributing to the gap and how are real estate professionals addressing the issue? Joining Jayne to discuss these questions is Ashley Thomas, a Los Angeles-based realtor and vice president of the National Association of Real Estate Brokers, an organization of African-American real estate professionals focused on democracy in housing. Ashley Thomas joins us from Los Angeles on Zoom.Email us at [email protected], tweet us: @MiddayWYPR, or call us at 410-662-8780.