DC Area Homeownership Gap Going Opposite Direction than Rest of the Country

• October 16th 2019

by Nena Perry-Brown

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Last year, UrbanTurf reported on the racial homeownership gap in the DC area, one of the smallest nationwide. Since then, the gap has actually gotten smaller.

A recent Urban Institute report delves into the Black-white homeownership gap in 105 metropolitan areas. The latest data shows the nationwide gap has grown to its highest rate in recorded history, from 28 percentage points in 2010 to 30 percentage points in 2017. 

Meanwhile, the DC area has been on the opposite trajectory. The gap between Black and white homeownership rates was 22 percentage points in 2017, shrinking 5 percentage points since 2010. The DC area Black homeownership rate of 50 percent is the tenth highest nationwide among the metro areas studied; more notably, the homeownership gap of 21.7 percent is the fourth smallest.

While some variables like income and credit scores have a measurable impact (accounting for respective gaps of 9 and 10.6 percentage points), the research concludes that 17 percent of the homeownership gap exists independently of such variables, instead likely attributable to such things as race-based structural inequities (e.g. community disinvestment) and the suppression of intergenerational wealth creation (e.g. inequitable credit access).

The report uses American Community Survey data covering the core-based statistical area, including counties as far north as Frederick County, Maryland, as far south as Spotsylvania, Virginia and as far west as Jefferson County, West Virginia.

This article originally published at https://dc.urbanturf.com/articles/blog/dc-area-homeownership-gap-going-opposite-direction-than-nationwide/16014.