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Black women outnumber black men when it comes to home purchases.
According to the National Association of Realtors’ 2023 Snapshot of Race and Homebuying in America report, single women are the most common homebuyers of all time, accounting for 27% of black homebuyers. By comparison, single women make up 24% of Asian homebuyers, 17% of white homebuyers, and 7% of Hispanic homebuyers.
According to a 2022 data analysis by Realtor.com, from October 2017 to September 2018, female buyers accounted for 32.4% of all Black homebuyers. From October 2020 to September 2021, the share jumped to 35.4%.
According to research from Realtor.com, the percentage of black female homebuyers increased at an average annual rate of 7.3% from October 2018 to January 2020. The share of black male homebuyers increased by only 3.4% annually over the same period.
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However, single black female buyers still face many challenges.
“There are examples of Black people buying homes and Black women buying homes. That doesn’t mean it’s easy for them, and it doesn’t mean it’s unnecessarily burdened by certain social hurdles that get in the way. It’s not being made difficult. It shouldn’t be there,” said Jacob Channell, senior economist at LendingTree.
“I think it’s obviously true that if you’re a black woman in America, you’re probably going to have a tough time buying a home in a variety of situations,” he said.
Three hurdles impacting homeownership for Black women
1. Educational debt: Black women are becoming more educated, but that also means they are more likely to take out student loans. Compared to other female undergraduate borrowers, Black women have the highest amount of student loan debt during their undergraduate years, averaging $41,466.05 per year after graduation, according to Bankrate.
Increasing student loan debt can make it harder to save for a down payment or qualify for a mortgage. Lenders will take into account your student loan payments when determining how much you can afford.
2. Access to mortgages: Channel said lending standards in the early 2000s were more relaxed than they are today. Single Black women are less likely to become homeowners in 2021 than they were in 2007, according to a report from the National Women’s Law Center.
That said, people who took out mortgages before the Great Recession often didn’t do well. Banks were more likely to offer larger mortgages to black women, and when the housing market crashed, women of color were more likely to be subject to foreclosure, the report found.
During the Great Recession, black women were 256% more likely to have subprime loans than white male borrowers in similar economic situations, said Sarah Hasmer, housing justice director at the National Women’s Law Center.
3. Low-wage jobs: Black women, like Latinx women, are disproportionately employed in low-wage jobs such as child care and hospitality.
“These jobs are vastly undervalued and critical to our economy,” Hasmer said.
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the median hourly wage for child care workers in 2022 was $13.71 per hour, or $28,520 per year.
“That makes it very difficult to make a down payment, which is one of the biggest obstacles to buying a home,” Hasmer said.
