Twin Cities has nation’s highest racial gap for homeowners

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — A report by the Urban Institute says the Twin Cities metro area has the nation’s highest racial gap when it comes to homeownership, as investors in some neighborhoods have been purchasing hundreds of single-family homes and turning them into rentals. The gap has only widened in the last two decades. The Star Tribune reported that the Black homeownership rate in Hennepin and Ramsey counties fell 10 percentage points between 2000 and 2018, while homeownership rates for whites stayed relatively constant. The research found roughly one-fifth of Black households own their homes, compared with nearly three-quarters of white households.