New Data Study From Today's Homeowner Exposes Black-White Homeownership Gap That is Wider Today Than During Civil Rights Era
Today, almost three in four white Americans own their home, while less than half of Black Americans can say the same. In fact, the gap in homeownership rates has actually grown wider from the civil rights movement to today.
With a newly released data study, researchers at Today's Homeowner ask the pressing question: Are Black Americans being locked out of the American dream of homeownership?
Our team examined how homeownership has changed over time, current state-level gaps, and states' progress towards closing their gaps. We analyzed nearly 300 cities, again identifying where the Black-white homeownership gap stands today and where the most progress has been made recently. The research team engaged experts in real estate, academia, and policymaking to help identify key historic and contemporary reasons for the persistent gap.
Today's Homeowner with Danny Lipford, an authority in the home services space for 25 years, invites you to share our Black Homeownership Gap research findings with your readers to give them a comprehensive view of the racial homeownership gap and some potential solutions.
Here are some of our main findings:
- Since 1994, the gap between Black and white homeownership rates worsened by over two percentage points. Most of this increase has taken place since 2010.
- 98% of cities have a gap, and Arden-Arcade, CA; Mesa, AZ; Bethlehem, PA; Torrance, CA; and Rochester, MN have the widest gaps.
- In a handful of cities, Black homeowner rates exceed white ones: Santa Ana, Corona, Manteca, Temecula, and Inglewood, CA, and Pueblo, CO.
- Midwestern states had the biggest gaps in 2021: North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota, and Wisconsin.
- The South had some of the narrowest gaps, including in South Carolina, Georgia, and Alabama. The District of Columbia has the smallest gap.
- Most states saw the Black-white homeownership gap worsen recently. In Vermont, Hawaii, Alaska, New Mexico, and New Hampshire the gaps worsened by at least 10 percentage points.
- Only 15 states narrowed their gap from 2010 to 2021 - the Rocky Mountain states of Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming led the way with double-digit reductions.
We measured the Black-white homeownership gap as the difference between the Black homeownership rate and the white homeownership rate in a given area. These calculations were based on national, state, and city-level data on owner-occupied households from the Census Bureau's American Communities Survey. In total, we compared all 50 states along with the District of Columbia and 293 cities with available data.
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