Black and Hispanic Homebuyers Are More Likely To Face Housing Discrimination

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Communities of color are more likely to experience discrimination in nearly every step of their homebuying journey.

Minorities continue to have higher mortgage application denials, have the lowest homeownership rates, and have properties that are more at risk of being undervalued by appraisals, according to a recent report from the National Association of Realtors®.

“We want homeownership to be for everybody. Homeownership is a main [way] to build wealth,” says NAR Senior Economist Nadia Evangelou. “Minority groups not only face additional challenges in their efforts to purchase a home, but also deal with inequalities after they purchase their homes.”

To come up with its findings, NAR analyzed data from the U.S. Census Bureau, and data collected through the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act as well as the Federal Housing Finance Agency. The organization also used data from a 129-question survey taken by 4,854 homebuyers who purchased property between July 2021 and June 2022.

Just 44.9% of Black households, 48.5% of Hispanic households, and 61.9% of Asian households owned their own homes in the last quarter of 2022, according to census data. That’s compared with 74.5% of white Americans.

Homeownership rates have increased over the past decade, but not by as much for every group.

“The Black homeownership rate has not kept pace with increases in the other racial groups,” says Evangelou. “The homeownership gap between white and Black households is significantly larger than a decade ago.”

Decades of systemic racism where people of color were forbidden to buy in certain communities and denied mortgages through a combination of federal government–sponsored redlining, deed restrictions, blockbusting, steering, and employment discrimination have resulted in significantly lower homeownership rates across the nation and less accumulated wealth.

That helps to explain why white families had nearly eight times as much wealth as Black families, with net worths of about $188,000 compared with $24,000 for Black families in 2019. Black households generally earn about 30% less than white households.

Black homeowners were more likely to be cost-burdened, with about 30% spending more than 30% of their earnings on housing. That’s compared with 28% of Hispanic homeowners, 26% of Asian homeowners, and 21% of white homeowners.

Renters also struggled. Roughly 30% of Black renters spent more than half of their income on housing, compared with 22% of white renters.

Those who are able to save up for a down payment might find it more difficult to secure mortgages. Black applicants seeking mortgages were denied 20% of the time, and Hispanic applicants 15% of the time—compared with 11% for white applicants and 10% for Asian applicants.

Even when minorities become homeowners, their properties are the most likely to be undervalued. For example, 23.3% of homes in neighborhoods with large populations of minorities were undervalued compared with just 13.4% in communities with the lowest numbers of minorities living there.

Appraisal values are an estimated 11% lower in communities of color.

“This is a problem because it prevents black families from building as much equity,” says Evangelou.

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