The National Association of Real Estate Brokers released its latest report on Black homeownership.

The U.S. Census Bureau estimates the Black homeownership rate was 47% in Q2 2020 and has yet to reach pre-2008 financial crisis levels. The non-Hispanic white homeownership rate was estimated to be 76%.

“Despite emphasis on the homeownership aspect of the American Dream in popular culture and among scholars and policymakers, Black and other minority families have faced many barriers to homeownership, most of which can be traced to cumulative disadvantage and structural inequalities,” the report says. 

Other statistics from 2020 State of Housing in Black America: Challenges Facing Black Homeowners and Homebuyers During the COVID-19 Pandemic and An Agenda For Public Policy include:

  • The average Black homebuyer is between 35 and 44 and has a FICO score of 626. In the conventional market, Black homebuyers borrow an average of $236,000, put 5% down, have a debt-to-income ratio of 39%, and have an average income of $209,000. 
  • The U.S. Census Bureau says the 2019 homeownership rates were: 42.1% Black, 47.5% Latinx, and 73.4% white.   
  • The Black-white homeownership gap was 26 percentage points in 2020, only slightly lower than the 26.8 percentage point gap in 1960, before the passage of the 1968 Fair Housing Act.
  • 62% of the Black population is concentrated in 20 metropolitan statistical areas.
  • The average home value was $350,194 for white new homebuyers and $255,878 for Black new homebuyers. 
  • In 2019, approximately 472,000 home purchase mortgages were obtained by Black homebuyers, over $113 billion in home purchases.
  • According to Freddie Mac, there were approximately 2.9 million Black “mortgage-ready” households in the U.S. in 2019. 

The report also includes public policy and real estate industry recommendations, such as instituting aggressive loan forbearance, restoring fair housing regulatory protections and enforcement, and evaluating inclusionary zoning programs and their effects on Black communities. 

Read the report here.