Median African-American Household Can Only Afford 25 Percent of For-Sale Homes

Only 25 percent of homes that were up for sale in 2018 were affordable to the median African-American household, according to new data from Redfin. This share was down from 39 percent in 2012.

 

Furthermore, Redfin determined that at least half the homes in any metro areas were unaffordable to typical African-American families. Back in 2012, there were only 13 metro areas where this lack of affordability was recorded.

 

All of the least affordable metro areas for African-American families were in California: San Jose (0.3 percent of homes affordable), San Francisco (0.4 percent), San Diego (1.2 percent) and Los Angeles (1.3 percent). The most affordable metro areas for African-American families were in the South: Memphis (48.7 percent), Atlanta (42.2 percent) and San Antonio (41.1 percent). Las Vegas saw the greatest plummet decline in the share of homes that African-American families could afford, down 46.6 percentage points from 61.2 percent in 2012 to 14.7 percent in 2018.

 

"Home prices have risen 70 percent since the beginning of the housing crash recovery in 2012," said Redfin Chief Economist Daryl Fairweather. "African-Americans, who were disproportionately affected by the housing crash in 2008 have found it much harder to get back into homeownership, especially as prices skyrocketed out of budget. With shortages of affordable homes, the future doesn't bode well for African Americans who aspire to be homeowners."

 

According to recent data from the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council (FFIEC), the share of home purchase loans for owner-occupied properties made to African-American borrowers rose from 6.4 percent in 2017 to 6.7 percent in 2018.

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