I received this comment from Rick Sharga, SVP RealtyTrac:
Interesting issue.
A partial answer to your question about falling Black homeownership rates since the Great Recession is that Black and Hispanic borrowers were hit disproportionately hard by the foreclosure wave. For borrowers who were either barely able to afford a home - or worse, were given a toxic loan for a home that they simply couldn't afford - the impact of a foreclosure can take many years to overcome, and is probably one of the reasons that Black homeownership rates haven't recovered since then.
While homeownership rates among Black and Hispanic borrowers plummeted as the number of foreclosures rose, Hispanic homeownership rates have risen consistently since then. The same hasn't been true for Black homeownership. I have to believe that someone is researching the reason(s) why the rate of recovery between these two groups has been so disparate, but I haven't seen anything on the subject yet.
This remains one of the lingering and probably harder to solve problems in the housing industry today.
I received this comment from Rick Sharga, SVP RealtyTrac:
Interesting issue.
A partial answer to your question about falling Black homeownership rates since the Great Recession is that Black and Hispanic borrowers were hit disproportionately hard by the foreclosure wave. For borrowers who were either barely able to afford a home - or worse, were given a toxic loan for a home that they simply couldn't afford - the impact of a foreclosure can take many years to overcome, and is probably one of the reasons that Black homeownership rates haven't recovered since then.
While homeownership rates among Black and Hispanic borrowers plummeted as the number of foreclosures rose, Hispanic homeownership rates have risen consistently since then. The same hasn't been true for Black homeownership. I have to believe that someone is researching the reason(s) why the rate of recovery between these two groups has been so disparate, but I haven't seen anything on the subject yet.
This remains one of the lingering and probably harder to solve problems in the housing industry today.