Black and Hispanic homebuyers pay a 3 percent premium, even when factors like access to credit and income are taken away.
Researchers led by Patrick Bayer at Duke University studied two million housing transactions in four metropolitan areas. They found that Black and Hispanic homebuyers paid a considerable premium: about $6,000 on a $200,000 house.
The results show that forms of racism still exist in society. According to the study:
Regardless of the ultimate explanation, though, our results show that black and Hispanic buyers pay more than their white counterparts in almost every purchase setting and that robust racial differences in the price paid to buy a home – upwards of 3- 3.5 percent on average in multiple major US markets – persist to the present day, long after many of the most overt forms of institutional discrimination have been eliminated.
The study found that sellers were willing to accept a lower price when the buyer was the same race.
Another theory is that minority buyers are playing catch-up:
The relative inexperience of black and Hispanic buyers, due to the historically lower rates of home ownership among the black and Hispanic households, may contribute to the higher prices that they initially pay upon entering the market.
Regardless of why it's the case, the study proves a systematic difference in how people of different races are treated when purchasing a house.
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