While the Hispanic homeownership rate is on the rise, the Black homeownership rate has fallen 8.6 percentage points since its peak in 2004, hitting its lowest level on record in the first quarter of this year, according to census data, reports the Wall Street Journal.
This divergence marks the first time in more than two decades that Hispanics and Blacks, the two largest racial or ethnic minorities in the U.S., are no longer following the same path when it comes to owning homes. Analysts say Black communities have struggled to recover financially since the housing crisis, which has kept homeownership out of reach.
A decades-long legacy of housing segregation has also made many would-be Black buyers wary of returning to the market after losing their homes. “We can see that discrimination is still there, although it has changed its form,” said Michela Zonta, a senior policy analyst at the Center for American Progress. A study by Zonta also found that higher-income Black homeowners are more likely to buy homes in heavily minority neighborhoods that have failed to benefit from the rise in home prices since the foreclosure crisis.
Homes in neighborhoods with a high concentration of White borrowers on average have seen their homes appreciate 3 percent from 2006 through 2017, according to the study. However, homes in neighborhoods with a concentration of Black borrowers on average are worth 6 percent less than they were in 2006. High-income Black borrowers have concentrated in neighborhoods where homes have lost 2 percent of their value, compared with White borrowers, who have concentrated in neighborhoods where homes have appreciated 5 percent. Zonta said the findings underscore the need to step up enforcement of the Fair Housing Act, which prevents mortgage brokers and realtors from steering clients to predominantly minority areas.
