NY Times | Aging in Place, or Stuck in Place?

Older Black and Hispanic homeowners are in particularly precarious positions because so much of their wealth is tied up in their houses, said Anthony Webb, a senior fellow at the New School for Social Research.

“There’s nothing wrong with having a mortgage on the liability side of the balance sheet, if it’s matched by funds on the asset side,” like retirement savings, investments and pensions, he said.

But minority homeowners have far fewer liquid assets than white homeowners, partly because of lower lifetime earnings. “This is a story of widening inequality,” Dr. Webb said. Many Black and Hispanic homeowners “have this asset,” he said, but “it’s going to be a struggle to keep it.”

Read more.