Massachusetts has among the largest racial homeownership gaps in the country, but we also have some model affordable homeownership programs working to make a difference.

For families in 50^th to 95^th percentile of wealth, in particular, retirement assets (including DB pension benefits) play a large role in wealth, actually composing the largest single asset class for these families, surpassing even housing wealth. Including these benefits in estimates of total wealth bring Black and Latino households a bit closer to wealth parity with their White peers.

Both in Massachusetts and in the nation as a whole, there’s been growing recognition of troubling wealth disparities based on race, ethnicity, income and education. To provide a baseline overview of these dynamics, this chartbook walks through a selection of the best existing data on racial wealth inequity, on the national level and with some insights at the local Boston level.