Wealth-accumulation study shows stark gaps among Hispanics and Blacks

Latino households have an average of less than a 10th of the wealth that white households have, according to a new national study due out Saturday by the Pew Hispanic Center, a nonpartisan research organization. The study finds that blacks lag even further behind in the accumulation of wealth. The median net worth of a Latino household in the United States in 2002 was $7,932, compared with $88,651 for white households, according to the study. The net worth for black households was $5,988. The stark difference in wealth means blacks and Latinos are more vulnerable to economic downturns and less likely to be able to save for retirement or to pass on to their children. "We're not talking about being rich; we're talking about owning a home and having a savings account," said Robert Suro, director of the Pew Hispanic Center. But wealth "does have a large intergenerational effect, which means families are able to pay for their children's education and help them purchase their first home." The report culls data from the U.S. Census Bureau on home ownership rates, income, savings and other factors. Researchers looked at data from 1996 to 2002 to track household wealth through the 2001 recession. During that recession, the wealth of black and Latino households shrank by 27 percent, while that of whites increased by 2 percent, said Rakesh Kochhar, the study's author and a research associate at the center. [more ]