Gains in home ownership have all but sailed past the nation's central cities. And minorities without college educations are missing the boat, too.

Those are two important trends noted in the latest "State of the Nation's Housing" report by the Joint Center for Housing Studies at Harvard University. But because the study once again concentrated on the problems low and moderate-income families endure in finding decent rental units, they have been largely overlooked.

That urban areas are lagging behind in the unprecedented effort by the White House to boost the ranks of home owners, coupled with the fact that people are still leaving central cities in droves, is a strong indication that so-called suburban sprawl, aka "urban decentralization," is likely to continue despite attempts to redirect growth by governments at all levels.

And that education is of paramount importance to everyone's ability to achieve owner status means that it is going to take far more than subsidies, relaxed underwriting rules and other concessions to raise the ownership rate among minorities. Even young married minorities with bachelor's degrees lag behind whites with only a high school sheepskin, according to the Joint Center.

The study found that while suburban and rural areas added some 5.2 million owners between 1991 and 1997, the central cities added only 520,000. As a result, the ownership rate rose from 71 percent to 73 percent in the 'burbs and from 73 percent to 75 percent in the country. But it increased less than half a percentage point in the central cities to just 49 percent.

Most of this is largely a result of the population exodus from urban cores. In many cities, the losses occurred while the surrounding metro areas gained residents. But there is hope, the report notes. Dozens of large southern and western cities have "managed to parlay regional economic growth into city population growth."

Still, in only one of the 39 largest metro areas -- San Antonio -- did population growth in the city outpace that in the suburbs. And that was only because the city encompasses 333 square miles.

While all ethnic groups have achieved ownership gains, the study also found, minorities have made only limited progress in closing the persistent gap between them and whites. And the lack of education is a major factor.

How important is education? According to the Harvard report, males with high school diplomas earn 60 percent more than those without them, while those with bachelor's degrees earn 2.3 times more and those with graduate degrees earn three times as much. And the disparity in earning power is still widening.

The education deficit among minorities may be even more difficult to overcome, if only because they also tend to have lower incomes and less wealth and a greater proportion of immigrants. Worse, fewer minorities manage to earn high school diplomas or college degrees than whites.

Even when they do graduate, though, their earnings are less than their white counterparts. According to the Joint Center, young, college-educated African-American males working full-time had a median income of $27,000 in 1997. By comparison, the median among whites was $36,000. And among 35 to 44-year-olds, the disparity is even greater -- $35,000 for blacks vs.$50,000 for whites.

Published: June 28, 1999

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When Lew Sichelman first started writing about housing in 1969, he was the youngest real estate writer in the country. Now, 37 years later, he's one of the oldest -- and most decorated. He has been rated the top housing columnist in the country by the National Association of Realtors as well as by his peers in the National Association of Real Estate Editors. Indeed, NAREE has recognized his work on numerous occasions. One year - due to his advancing age, he can't recall which one - he earned top honors in the annual NAREE Journalism Contest in three out of the four major writing categories. It was the first time one writer has won so many NAREE awards in a single year. Known for his ability to make even the most difficult topics understandable, Sichelman also has been honored by the National Association of Home Builders and the Mortgage Bankers Association. He began providing in-depth coverage of and consumer-oriented information about housing and housing finance at the Washington Daily News, where he was real estate editor. He held that same position for nine more years at the Washington Star, which purchased the News in 1972. The Star, a so-called "writer's newspaper" which also had the misfortune of being an evening paper, was put out of its misery in 1981, and Sichelman, who had begun self-syndicating his column in 1978, decided to become a full-time columnist. Today, his column, "The Housing Scene," is distributed by United Media to newspapers throughout the country. He also is on the staff of National Mortgage News, an independent newspaper which is considered the bible of the mortgage business. And he writes for numerous other publications, including MarketWatch.com, where he answers readers questions once a week, Sports Illustrated (don't ask), RealtyTimes.com, BigBuilder and others. Sichelman is married, the father of five and grandfather of eleven.