At LEGACY Home Loans, our mission is to create more Black homeowners and help families build a legacy by obtaining sustainable wealth through homeownership. This mission was birthed out of our concern about the current wealth and homeownership disparities between Whites and Blacks.
By educating our community and building awareness, we hope to motivate our community into action. Today, we are going to explore the state of Black homeownership by looking at recent statistics that demonstrate where the Black community currently stands as it pertains to homeownership and wealth because once we gain awareness of the problem, we can begin to arrive at a solution.
- As reported in The Road to Zero Wealth, if current wealth trends persist, the median wealth for Black Americans will fall to zero by 2053.
- There is currently a 30% gap between Blacks and Whites as it pertains to homeownership, as only 44% of Blacks are homeowners compared to 73.7% of White families (as reported by the U.S. Census Bureau).
- The homeownership disparity is greater today than it was in 1934 when the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) was created.
- The number of Black homeowners has been in a steady decline since the 2012 housing crisis. During this time, Blacks—who were largely the target of subprime lending—were twice as likely as Whites to face foreclosure on their homes.
- Single Black women make up 30-35% of all homebuyers.
- Black households pay 13% more in property taxes than Whites who live in a similar home, according to research from the University of Utah and Indiana University.
- Washington DC has the highest number of Black homeowners in the nation, with 51% of Blacks owning homes. Even still, the homeownership disparity persists, with 70% of Whites also owning residential properties.
- No city in America, even those with a predominantly Black population, has even come close to closing the homeownership gap.
- There was a time when Blacks held prime real estate in some of the country’s most prized locations. For instance, the area that we know today as Central Park was once a Black settlement called Seneca Village before Blacks were forced out to create Central Park. What is now known as Seattle’s Central District was nearly 80% Black in the ’70s and '80s. In recent years, predominantly Black cities such as Inglewood in Southern California, Harlem, Brooklyn, and Queens are suffering the same fate...gentrification.
If there’s one thing these statistics make clear, it’s that Black homeownership matters. If we want to turn things around for the Black community before the median wealth hits $0, we must find ways to build wealth, and owning a home is a great way to do just that.
Connect with one of our loan originators today!
