African-American homeownership rose 3.4 percentage points during the second half of 2019—bringing it back to frown a three-decade to near historic averages—Zillow reports. [1]
The share of African-American homeownership rose from 41.6% in 1970 to 46.5% in 2007. However, that rate fell during the Great Recession to below 1970 levels.
Forty-four percent of African-Americans owned homes by the end of 2019.
Additionally, African-American homeownership trails the share of non-African-American households in the 45 largest metros studied.
Homeownership has been a key path to wealth creation and stability for generations of Americans," said Jeff Tucker, a Zillow economist. "It appears that now, more than 10 years after a housing bust that hit black homeowners the hardest, more black families are beginning to move into homeownership. The remaining gap from the 2007 peak shows a long road ahead in the recovery, but this is a step in the right direction."
Sacramento, California, has since the largest increase since during the past decade, with the share of African-American homeowners rising 7.8 percentage points. Phoenix reported a 5.4 percentage-point increase, San Francisco saw that rate rise by 4.4 percentage points, and Portland, Oregon, had an increase of 3.9 percentage points.
African-American households have closed the gap the most in Sacramento; Orlando, Florida; and Cincinnati.
Birmingham, Alabama, has the highest rate of African-American homeownership at 52.2%. Washington, D.C., was a close second at 51.4%. Richmond, Virginia, and Atlanta followed, with rates of 49.9% and 48.2%, respectively. Birmingham has the seventh-highest share of the African-American population in the nation.
San Antoni has just the 37th-highest share of African-American residents, but they have a homeownership rate of 42.9%, which ranks 14th.
Minneapolis was found to have the lowest share of African-American homeownership of the metro studied at the end of 2018 at 22.3%—a decline from the three-year average of 24.6% from 2014 to 2016.
California led the way for the largest decline in African-American homeownership. San Jose reported a 9% decline, the drop in San Diego was 3%, and the dip in Los Angeles was nearly 2%.
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