ABSTRACT
One major challenge to addressing homebuying issues, like affordable housing and racial segregation, is that housing is bundled with the most widespread and consequential investment strategy for the American middle class. For homeownership to work as a mass investment strategy, housing must become more expensive over time and of course, that eventually makes it unaffordable for new homebuyers (Hertz 2015). One of the consequences of racial segregation is that homes in predominately Black areas appreciate more slowly than average, which contributes to racial wealth inequality. While homebuyer assistance programs provide resources to middle-income African Americans that are important for expanding their access to homeownership, they ignore the racial dynamics that diminish the use value and exchange value of their homes. There are fundamental problems with the system that bundles up housing—the main strategy to build middle-class wealth, access to shelter, and cultural recognition as a fully realized citizen—into one asset that hurts so many kinds of vulnerable people.
