Discrimination in Metropolitan Housing Markets

The Housing Discrimination Study 2000 (HDS 2000) represents the most ambitious effort to date to measure the extent of housing discrimination in the United States against persons because of their race or color. It is the third nationwide effort sponsored by HUD to measure the amount of discrimination faced by minority home seekers. The previous studies were conducted in 1977 and 1989.The report noted below provides national estimates of discrimination faced by African Americans and Hispanics in 2000/2001 as they searched for housing in the sales and rental markets. It also provides an accurate measure of how housing discrimination has changed for these groups since 1989.

Discrimination in Metropolitan Housing Markets: Phase 1
The results in this report are based on 4,600 paired tests in 23 metropolitan areas nationwide. The report shows large decreases between 1989 and 2000 in the level of discrimination experienced by Hispanics and African Americans seeking to a buy a home. There has also been a modest decrease in discrimination toward African Americans seeking to rent a unit. This downward trend, however, has not been seen for Hispanic renters. Hispanic renters now are more likely to experience discrimination in their housing search than do African American renters.While generally down since 1989, housing discrimination still exists at unacceptable levels. The greatest share of discrimination for Hispanic and African American home seekers can still be attributed to being told units are unavailable when they are available to non-Hispanic whites and being shown and told about less units than a comparable non-minority. Although discrimination is down on most measures for African American and Hispanic homebuyers, there are worrisome upward trends of discrimination in the areas of geographic steering for African Americans and, relative to non-Hispanic whites, the amount of help agents provide to Hispanics with obtaining financing. On the rental side, Hispanics are more likely in 2000 than in 1989 to be quoted a higher rent than their white counterpart for the same unit.There are three volumes to this report, the main report, an annex, and a supplement. The main report provides the key findings; the annex provides more details on the data collection, analysis methods and metropolitan estimates; and the supplement uses 1,507 additional tests conducted in Phase 2 to provide state estimates for Alabama, California, Georgia, and New York, metropolitan estimates for the Baltimore MSA and the Miami MSA, and updated national estimates of discrimination for blacks and Hispanics.

Discrimination in Metropolitan Housing Markets: Phase 2 - Asians and Pacific Islanders
This study provides the first ever estimate of the level of discrimination experienced by Asians and Pacific Islanders. The results are based on 889-paired tests conducted in eleven metropolitan areas nationwide in 2000 and 2001. The key findings are that:

• Asian and Pacific Islander prospective renters experienced consistent adverse treatment relative to comparable whites in 21.5 percent of tests, about the same as the level for African American and Hispanic renters.
• Asian and Pacific Islander prospective homebuyers experienced consistent adverse treatment relative to comparable whites 20.4 percent of the time, with systematic discrimination occurring in housing availability, inspections, financing assistance, and agent encouragement.

In addition to the national estimate for Asians and Pacific Islanders, the report also provides a national estimate for Asians alone, an estimate for the continental U.S., statewide estimate of discrimination against Asians and Pacific Islanders in California, estimates of discrimination faced by Chinese and Koreans in the Los Angeles metropolitan area, and an estimate of discrimination faced by Southeast Asians in the Minneapolis metropolitan area.

Discrimination in Metropolitan Housing Markets: Phase 3 - Native Americans
This study provides estimates of the level of housing discrimination experienced by Native Americans when they search for housing in the metropolitan areas of Minnesota, Montana, and New Mexico. Across all three states, Native Americans receive consistently unfavorable treatment relative to whites in 28.5 percent of rental tests. Systematic discrimination is most observable on measures of availability. That is, whites are told the advertised unit is available, told about similar units, and told about more units than similarly qualified Native American testers. The level of consistent adverse treatment and systematic discrimination experienced by Native Americans in the metropolitan rental markets of the three states is greater than the national levels shown for African Americans, Hispanics, and Asians."