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The National Association of Home Builders (NAHB), with information from the U.S. Census Bureau’s Housing Vacancies and Homeownership Survey, reveals that the minority homeownership rate fell to 46.9% in Q2 2019.
The rate fell year-over-year from 47.4% and is at its lowest level since Q3 2017.
According to the U.S. Census Bureau’s Housing Vacancies and Homeownership Survey, the overall homeownership rate for the quarter fell to 64.1% from 64.3% in Q2 2018.
The NAHB states that the recent drop in homeownership indicates that “eroding housing affordability” continues to be a barrier for prospective buyers.
Minority homeownership rates are calculated using data from Afrian-American, Hispannic, and other households. The homeownership rate for African-American-non-hispanics fell to 42.6% in Q2 2019 from 41.3% during the same period last year.
The NAHB states that this is the lowest homeownership rate among African-American households since 2004.
Hispanic homeownership remained flat at 46.6% and the “Other” homeownership rate fell 0.7 points to 57.8%.
The homeownership rate among white, non-hispanics, increased slightly to 73.1% in Q2 2019 from 72.9% last year.
Analysis from the Urban Institute states that the Hispanic homeownership rate is lagging, especially in the northwest.
New York City has the second-highest number of Hispanic households—almost 1.5 million—but they represent only 21% of total households. The Hispanic homeownership gap is notably larger in the Northeast than in other regions of the country.
“Latinos are moving further down south in the county and going up really north in the county to Eagle Mountain,” Hernandez said on The Daily Herald. “We’re seeing a huge bloom of Latino populations in Eagle Mountain, to the point where we’ve actually had people request our services up there.”
“They’re weighing their options — do I buy a house, pay a little bit more, but at least I own my house, or do I pay a lot of rent, and maybe it’s not kid-friendly, maybe it’s not enough bedrooms,” Hernandez said. “Particularly when you look at how Latino families are multigenerational homes. You have grandma living there, you have your parents, and obviously the kids, so they need a bigger space.”
