Expanding Black Immigrant Homeownership Opportunities

A new study from the Joint Center for Housing Studies expands on efforts to close the historically large Black-white homeownership gap, as new data showed that many Black households are in fact headed by immigrants, particularly in the Northeast, Texas, and Florida. Commentary from Postdoctoral Fellow Sharon Cornelissen further details nationwide figures and methods of increasing Black immigrant homeownership opportunities.

In “Black Immigrant Homeownership: National Trends and the Case of Metro Boston,” a new working paper JHCS co-authored with Raheem Hanifa, American Community Survey data was used to highlight the growing number of Black immigrant households and Black immigrant homeowners specifically. In the paper, it's also explored how these trends are playing out in greater Boston.

Looking first at Black immigration and homeownership across the nation, the paper shows how, in many states, immigrants make up high shares of all Black households. Nationwide, one in eight Black households (12%t, or 2 million households) are headed by someone who was born abroad.

Immigrants make up high shares of Black households in some states

Many of these Black immigrant households have become homeowners. The national homeownership rate of Black immigrants (42.1%) is similar to the rate of native-born Black households (41.7% but both rates represent a significant gap of around 30% below the white homeownership rate. At the same time, homeownership rates differ widely between Black immigrant groups. Less than 10% of Black households headed by a person born in Somalia own homes, compared to 56% of those headed by a person born in Jamaica. JCHS highlighted the unequal extents to which different Black immigrant groups attain homeownership and identify possible explanations behind these differences, considering the impact of geographic location, as well as the role of country of origin, age structures, and immigration histories.

Immigrants from Cape Verde live in a small number of municipalities south of Boston.

The paper then zooms in on Black immigrant homeownership in Massachusetts as a case study of a state where many Black households have immigrated. In Massachusetts, fully 46% of all Black households are headed by someone born in another country. Immigrants also make up high shares of Black households in other large states such as Florida (28%) and New York (36%).

JCHS compared mobility trends at the municipal level both within and outside of the city of Boston, to show how the suburbs are playing an increasingly important role for Black immigrant homeownership opportunities. Findings also show how immigrant groups are geographically concentrated in a small number of communities throughout eastern Massachusetts, with some suburban cities having specialized as “ethnoburbs” that house specific immigrant groups.

Whereas immigrants from the Dominican Republic are more likely to live in a few places to the north and west of Boston

To read the full report, including more data, charts and methodology, click here.