‘A plunder of black wealth’: Predatory housing contracts gouged Chicago’s black homeowners, new report says
“Black homebuyers in Chicago lost at least $3.2 billion in today’s dollars because of racist real estate policies and predatory contracts between 1950 and 1970, according to a report published Thursday. In those 20 years, black Chicagoans purchased 60,100 homes. More than 75% of those homes were sold through so-called ‘home sale contracts.’ Those contracts allowed the seller to hold the deed until the buyer paid off the home in full. Until then, buyers did not accumulate equity in the home and owners were allowed to evict them for missing a single monthly payment.”