HOMEOWNERSHIP BY MINORITIES BOOSTED DURING HOUSING BOOM – Now In Bust Minority Ownership is Falling!

HOMEOWNERSHIP BY MINORITIES BOOSTED DURING HOUSING BOOM – Now In Bust Minority Ownership is Falling!

PART OF GAINS MADE BY SOME GROUPS PARTLY GIVEN BACK SINCE 2005!

It became true here in Chicago as it had in other areas of the country.

During the recent boom in the Real Estate Market roughly between 2005 and 2008 with its easy-to-find loans and push of "owning a house is for everyone" many U.S. Minorities flocked to homeownership.

According to a Pew Hispanic Center study reported by Miriam Jordan in the May 13 edition of The Wall Street Journal Hispanics African-Americans and Asians are now more likely to own a home in the U.S. than at any time in history. In 2008 48.9% of all Hispanic households owned a home up from 41.9% in 1995. African-American homeownership increased to 47.5% from 42.1% during the same period. Asians were the fastest-growing group of minority homeowners – 59.1% of Asians owned a home in 2008 compared to 49.1% in 1995.

By comparison homeownership among white families in the U.S. was 74.9% at the end of 2008 versus 70.5% in 1995 the largest homeownership percentage of any ethnic or racial group by a wide margin.

Since prices for real estate started falling however beginning in late 2005 in Chicago according to many experts levels of homeownership among minorities has fallen more steeply than for white households. In the last 4 years Hispanics experienced an overall 2.6% drop in the rate of homeownership African-Americans – 1.8%. For white families the falloff was only 1.0%.

Since 2007 members of minority groups were far more likely to take on high-risk high-leverage sub-prime loans than white families. In 2007 for example only 10.5% of all sub-prime mortgage loans were issued to white households. By contrast 27.6% of sub-primes were issued to Hispanic households and 33.5% of these loan products to African-Americans.

U.S. Citizenship also factored into the homeownership equation. According to the Pew Study in 2008 69% of naturalized U.S. Citizens – those not native to the United States but who acquired citizenship – were homeowners. Only 38.3% of non-citizens owned a home or condominium here.

The study further found that counties with higher concentrations of immigrant residents tend to have higher rates of foreclosure than counties with fewer immigrants by proportion. However they point out more may be involved here than simply race or ethnicity due to the struggling U.S. Economy.

Those cities with some of the highest rates of home foreclosure – Phoenix Atlanta and Las Vegas for example – also have high immigrant populations. But Pew points out these same areas also experienced inordinate housing growth and rapid price escalation during the housing boom between 2005 and early 2008.

Jordan’s article provides additional statistics.

DEAN MOSS & DEAN’S TEAM CHICAGO