NAREB Seeks 2M New Black Homeowners by 2023

The National Association of Real Estate Brokers (NAREB) has unveiled a program designed to increase the level of African-American homeownership by two million over the next five years.

 

Citing U.S. Census Bureau data that put the black homeownership rate at 42.2 percent—barely one-tenth of a percentage point higher than the rate reported when the Fair Housing Act was signed 50 years ago—NAREB will prioritize efforts to encourage strategies and partnership designed to encourage greater opportunities for African-Americans to pursue homeownership and to enjoy the wealth generation benefits that come with being a homeowner.

 

“Black homeownership is the first, and most essential step to build economic strength within our communities,” said NAREB President Jeffrey Hicks, speaking before today’s opening of the organization’s 71st Annual Convention in Atlanta. “We’ve lost more ground than we’ve gained over the past 50 years. Whether through unmeasurable losses of equity during the country’s last economic meltdown, consistently high unemployment rates, unfavorable federal and state policies restricting affordable homeownership, or systemic mortgage lending barriers, Black homeownership—and therefore our wealth-building potential as a people—remain diminished.”

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