“For African American families in particular, the homeownership rate remains relatively unchanged since 1968, the year the Fair Housing Act was signed into law.”
A radical increase in Black homeownership is needed to see progress in bridging Black and White homeownership and wealth inequality. One of the defining factors of economic well-being for individuals and families is household net worth or wealth, but not all families are equal. Decades of racial injustice and economic inequality have led to persistent disparities in wealth, specifically for people of color. One of the foundational steps in building wealth is homeownership. Today, the homeownership rate for African Americans[1] is approximately 42% – 45%, essentially unchanged from the rate decades ago and widening over the last a few years. This report highlights historic Black homeownership rates, and underscores the need to significantly increase homeownership rates for Black Americans. We believe reaching a 60% Black homeownership rate will address significant barriers to housing access and wealth creation for the African American community. [...] While Black homeownership has fluctuated over the past 40 years, the homeownership rate for Black Americans has still significantly lagged behind their White and Asian counterparts. Shockingly, Black homeownership rates remained relatively unchanged during the mid-’70s to early ’80s. Since 1980, the homeownership gap between high-income Black and White Americans, in particular, was marginally narrowed; however, the homeownership gap among low- and moderate-income (LMI) Black and White households remained relatively constant, and widened after the late 1980s, thus widening the gaps in wealth and asset generation between Black and White Americans.