Cassandra Morning poses for a portrait in her home in Athens, Georgia, on April 11, 2022. Morning bought her first home in July 2020, just as house prices began to climb. (Photo/Spencer Donovan, [email protected])
Before owning a home, Cassandra Morning would drive around different neighborhoods and imagine what it would feel like to have her own place. After renting for 21 years in Athens, she decided in 2017 she didn’t want to rent anymore.
“I’m like, ‘Wow, I wonder what that feels like to have your own home, to drive up and say this is mine?’” Morning said.
The prospect of owning a home was a dream to Morning, who was going through a divorce at the time and wanted to move. On top of that, Morning found it didn’t make financial sense for her to keep her $900-per-month duplex because rent was increasing each year.
In July 2020, Morning finally bought her first home. She said she wanted to show her daughters, who are 22 and 16, that they can own a home. As an African American woman, Morning said she’s especially proud to be a homeowner.
Cassandra Morning surveys her yard at her home in Athens, Georgia, on April 11, 2022. Morning bought her first home in July 2020, right before house prices began to climb. (Photo/Spencer Donovan, [email protected])
Morning grew up in Miami and became a nurse in 1989 after attending Tuskegee University in Alabama. Her mother worked in a glass factory and made enough to afford a “modest and plain” house, Morning said, but money was often tight.
Black American families have been historically discriminated against in housing policies, so it’s been harder for them to purchase homes and build wealth that way, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. Generational wealth is built through housing, said Michelle …….