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Housing Costs Threaten Middle-Class Security.
New York -- The economic security of America's African-American and Latino middle class is endangered by insufficient assets and high housing costs that put America's households of color at risk of impoverishment, according to a new study by Demos and the Institute on Assets and Social Policy at Brandeis University.
"The vast majority of African-American and Latino families who have entered the middle class are either borderline or at high risk of falling out of the middle class altogether," Demos said and lack of affordable housing is one of the most significant contributing factors.
Only 26% of African-American and 37% of Latino middle-class families spend less than 20% of their after-tax income on housing - both are below the national average of 40%.
Entitled "Economic (In)Security: The Experience of the African-American and Latino Middle Classes," the report found that one in four African-American and less than one in five Latino middle-class families in America is financially secure - or three out of four African-American and four out of five Latino middle-class families are financially at risk.
The report, the first to measure the economic stability of households of color in the United States according to Demos, shows assets and housing costs "are among the key destabilizing factors Latino and African-American families face."
"African-American and Latino families, even those who have made it into the middle class, still face very serious barriers to financial security," said Demos senior fellow and report co-author Jennifer Wheary.
Data show that these families are constantly at risk of poverty. Up to 95% of African-American and 87% of Latino middle-class families do not have enough net assets to meet three-quarters of their essential living expenses for even three months if their source of income were to disappear. Only 2% of African-American and 8% of middle-class Latino families have enough net financial assets to meet three-quarters of their essential living expenses for nine months if their source of income disappeared.
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