Homeownership comes with a long list of proven benefits: helping families build wealth, improving health outcomes, providing long-term stability, increasing academic success. But access to homeownership has not been and is not equally available to all. Throughout history and into the present day, Black and Hispanic/Latino families in the U.S. have faced significant barriers to accessing credit, safe neighborhoods and decent homes.
Habitat for Humanity’s evidence brief “How do racial inequities limit homeownership opportunities?” reviews the history of racial inequities in housing and how they undermine the stability and generational wealth of Black and Hispanic/ Latino families today. Each section also shares how Habitat works with communities across the country to help overcome these barriers.
A few key takeaways:
- The typical white family has five to eight times the wealth of a typical Black or Hispanic/Latino family — a difference that has continued to grow as inequities in homeownership, the main contributor to net wealth, has compounded across generations.
- Homes in majority-Black neighborhoods are valued at 23% less than homes in neighborhoods with few or no Black residents. Meanwhile, Black households pay 10–13% more in property taxes than white households in similar neighborhood types.
- Habitat serves a diverse base of homeowners, providing for more equitable access to housing. 41% of the families who partnered with Habitat in FY2020 identified as Black, 17% as Hispanic/Latino.
- Habitat advocates for anti-racist housing and land-use policies at the local, state and federal levels that aim to increase racial equity in homeownership.
This latest brief is one in a series aimed at exploring the impact of affordable housing. Learn more at habitat.org/whyshelter.
