104 percent to $19,800. Mortgage
payments consumed 19 percent of family income in 1980, up modestly
from 17 percent in 1970. Renters fared less well. Average rents jumped
125 percent, consuming 27 percent of tenant income in 1980 as opposed
to 20 percent in 1970. And renters' family incomes in 1980 were only 67
percent of the US. average, while those of homeowners grew to 125
percent, widening a gap that first appeared during the 1940s.
More than half of all American blacks and Hispanics...