Home ownership in the United States is broadly seen as a way build a modest amount of household wealth over time. If one can afford a mortgage, it usually makes sense in Rochester to own rather than rent. After all, households are going to experience housing costs whether they rent or own, but home ownership allows a family to pay for their housing while also building savings in the form of home equity. Those financial resources can then, ideally, be passed on to one’s children and grandchildren.

But as with so many other issues, it appears that there are racial disparities in the effectiveness of home ownership at building wealth, at least here in Rochester. Simply, the whiter a census tract is in Rochester in 2019, the greater likelihood that homes in that census tract have increased in value since 1996. Nearly every majority white census tract (24 of 25) in Rochester increased in value from 1996 to 2019, while only 37% of majority non-white census tracts increased in value over the same period of time. This suggests that home ownership may be a better wealth generation tool for white households in Rochester than for Black and Hispanic families.

New York State recently passed new legislation that extends downstate rent regulations to the rest of the state. This law will (among other things) allow any community in New York State with a tight rental market to establish rent stability measures that limit the ability of many landlords to raise rents beyond a certain level each year.