A new survey from Redfin details the struggles faced by prospective Black homeowners in America compared to their white counterparts.
The discount brokerage polled about 1,500 homeowners during the first week of June: 238 who identified themselves as Black, 499 who identified themselves as white, 385 who identified themselves as Hispanic and 387 who identified themselves as another race.
Twenty-three percent of white homeowners made no financial sacrifices to buy their first home, versus only 14 percent of Black homeowners. Meanwhile, 30 percent of Black respondents took an extra job to afford their first home, versus 22 percent of white respondents, the survey found.
Even more striking: the income levels homeowners in the survey had to achieve before they bought their first home: 21 percent of Black respondents earned $150,000 or more when they bought their first home, versus 11 percent of white homeowners, and 58 percent of white respondents earned less than $50,000 when they purchased their first home, versus just 34 percent of Black homeowners.
“Homeownership is closely tied to the American ideal of freedom, and specifically financial freedom,” Redfin Chief Economist Daryl Fairweather said in a statement. “The fact that Black buyers report earning more money and making more financial sacrifices to enter the homeowner class is one example of how difficult it is for Black people in this country to achieve the American dream.”
Fairweather said the findings suggest the financial standard for becoming a homeowner is higher for Black people than white people, making it more difficult for Black Americans to buy homes. Black homebuyers are also more frequently turned down due to debt and credit scores than their white counterparts.
That standard, along with historic disparities in family wealth caused by the legacies of redlining and other types of historical discrimination, gets reflected in Black and white homeownership rates: 73.8 percent for the latter and just 45.1 percent for the former.
“Black people who succeed in buying a home have to be Superman or Superwoman,” Bryan Greene, vice president of policy advocacy for the National Association of Realtors, said at a recent Redfin’s symposium on race and homebuying. “They need to have higher degrees, they have more debt, they face persistent rejection and generally carry around bigger burdens to achieve the same goal as white people.”