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Connecticut’s Black households appear to have been left behind by a record jump in the nation’s home ownership rate, a new study by the National Association of Realtors has found.
NAR’s annual Snapshot of Race and Home Buying in America report shows 40 percent of Connecticut’s Black families owned their own homes in 2021. That’s significantly fewer than the 74 percent of whites and 61 percent of Asians and on par with the 39 percent of Latino Nutmeggers who own their own homes.
The report was based on research NAR did for its annual Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers report, and showed a record increase in the nation’s overall homeownership rate: a 130-basis point gain in one year, to 65.5 percent of all Americans.
However, the homeownership rate for Black Americans – 43.4 percent – trails behind that of a decade ago (44.2 percent in 2010). Conversely, White Americans (72.1 percent), Asian Americans (61.7 percent) and Hispanic Americans (51.1 percent) all achieved decadel-ong highs in homeownership in 2020, with the rate for Hispanic Americans setting a record and reaching above 50 percent for the first time
“As the gap in homeownership rates for Black and White Americans has widened, it is important to understand the unique challenges that minority home buyers face,” Jessica Lautz, NAR vice president of demographics and behavioral insights, said in a statement. “Housing affordability and low inventory has made it even more challenging for all buyers to enter into homeownership, but even more so for Black Americans.”
Part of the problem, NAR researchers say, is simply the big drops in affordability over the last two years. A household earning $75,000 could only afford to buy 34 percent of the homes for sale in Connecticut last year, or 1,360 listings, Nadia Evangelou, NAR senior economist & director of forecasting said in an emailed statement.
The Census Bureau put the statewide median household income at $78,444 in its most recent survey, which covered 2019. For Asian houseolds, that was $96,689, for white non-Hispanic households it was $89,527, for Black households it was $49,000 and for Latino households it was $47,753.
Renters, Evangelou said, offer another window into the issue. The median-priced home was only affordable to 31 percent of Connecticut renters, compared to 38 percent in New Hampshire and 23 percent in Massachusetts.
“This could also mean that we should expect relatively fewer Black renter households to become homebuyers in Massachusetts than in Connecticut and New Hampshire,” she said.
Connecticut did lead its New England peers in one respect, however: Larger shares of its minority communities owned their own homes. Among whites in Massachusetts, 69 percent owned compared to 34 percent of Black residents, 52 percent of Asians and 31 percent of Latinos.
“Low affordability and low housing supply are the main reasons the Black homeownership rate is lower in Massachusetts than in Connecticut and New Hampshire. Although Black households have a higher income in Massachusetts, rising home prices and record-low inventory made it even more difficult for Black households to become homeowners in this area,” Evangelou said.
