Housing - All Boats Didn't Rise

 ALL BOATS DIDN’T RISE - RACISM IN REAL ESTATE

Why is there such disproportional racial disparity in wealth in this country?  Other than the obvious that those of Northern European decent came to North America in the 1600’s and took over.  “Non-whites” were looked down on and things went down-hill from there up to and including today.  But here’s the thing, we can look back as recently as the end of World War Two, in the 1940’s when Americans were coming back home to the USA, to see that all financial boats didn’t rise together.  Some were weighted down by racial segregation, in housing legal documents.

Virtually all subdivisions have a document called CC&R’s, Covenants Conditions & Restrictions.  These documents contain the rules under which everyone who purchases or lives in that subdivision must abide.  Every subdivision in our area has CC&R’s.  Some of these subdivisions were created so long ago that many homeowners don’t even realize that they exist.

In the 1940’s after WW2 ended, real estate developer Abraham Levitt and his two sons, William and Alfred, created four housing developments called "Levittown" in the eastern U.S.  Even though the Levitt family was Jewish, their developments became the poster-child for racial discrimination in housing.  Even Jews were discriminated against at the beginning, from purchasing in Levittown.  But even more onerous, African Americans and other people of color were targeted. 

Non-white citizens who gave their all for their country returned home to the U.S. to face the same old racist B.S.  Many lost their lives and their families were left with nothing except the despair of racist hatred, segregation and repression.  The housing wealth-building mechanism was denied them.  Housing appreciation built family wealth for many whites, not people of color.

The Federal Housing Administration, FHA, allowed and encouraged developers to segregate and discriminate.  FHA even made it policy to only make housing loans to segregated communities.

In Levittown sale and rental agreements, only members of the “Caucasian” race were allowed to purchase or rent.  At that time, one could purchase of new home for as little as $8,000. 

The Levittown discrimination model became the model for housing developments all over the country including here in Northern California and Mendocino County. 

In 1948 the Ukiah Rogina Subdivision CC&R’s reads, “No lots shall at any time be sold to anyone except an individual or individuals of the white race.”  In that same year the “Covenant of Building Restrictions Mendocino Gardens Tract” read “That no lot or portion thereof shall at any time be used or occupied by any person not of the white or Caucasian race except in the capacity of domestic servants in the employ of a white or Caucasian owner or occupant.”

In Levittown Jews were eventually allowed in, but all others were “discouraged” from buying or moving in. 

Here’s the thing about wealth creation that I referred to.  As the market value of these $8,000. houses grew to $40,000., then $80,000., then $120,000. And today the mid $200,000’s up to over half-a-million – so did the savings and net worth of those home owners grow.  But the wealth of those citizens who were prevented from buying one of those homes, didn’t grow. 

Those excluded soldiers and workers and U.S. citizens were delegated to slum housing as renters - or segregated, low appreciation housing. Their dollars did not grow in value at anywhere the rate of their “white” fellow citizens.  Their legacy was, and still is, poverty in large numbers.  You can’t participate in or pass along wealth that you were never allowed to be a part of.  That boat has sailed now.

Although such discrimination is now, at least officially, unlawful – the damage is done and so far little has been done to rectify it. 

California code ARTICLE 2. 12956.1 now reads in part:

 “If this document contains any restriction based on race, color, religion, sex, gender, gender identity, gender expression, sexual orientation, familial status, marital status, disability, genetic information, national origin, source of income as defined in subdivision (p) of Section 12955, or ancestry, that restriction violates state and federal fair housing laws and is void, and may be removed pursuant to Section 12956.2 of the Government Code.”

As Eliza Doolittle said in My Fair Lady, “Word, words, words.  I’m so sick of words.  Is that all you blighters can do?”  We have a major dilemma in our great nation.  We have legislators that keep creating more and more mechanisms to massively build and protect the wealth of a small percentage of the super wealthy, while the middle-class and poor are turned into the new working slave class.  Look at how many hard-working Americans lost their homes in the past 10 years as the equity from their homes got passed along to the wealthiest few. Is that really what you want for your country, yourself and your loved ones?

About the author

Bill Barksdale is a 2016 inductee in the Realtor Hall of Fame.

He can be reached at Coldwell Banker Mendo Realty Inc. 707-489-2232, bark@pacific.net.