Single Black women are outpacing Black men in terms of home ownership, but there are three main obstacles standing in their way.
According to CNBC, the percentage of Black women who purchased homes increased at an average yearly rate of 7.3% from October 2018 to January 2020. During the same era, Realtor.com showed that the annual growth rate of Black male buyers was only 3.4%.
The National Association of Realtors’ 2023 Snapshot of Race and Home Buying in America study indicated that single female purchasers are most prevalent among Black women, accounting for 27% of Black homebuyers. Comparatively, single women make up 24% of Asian homebuyers, 17% of white buyers, and 7% of Hispanic purchasers.
However, low-paying jobs, education debt, and mortgage eligibility tend to pose problems during Black women’s journey to home ownership.
“There are instances where Black people are buying homes, Black women are buying homes,” said Jacob Channel, a senior economist at LendingTree. “That doesn’t mean that it’s easy for them and that doesn’t mean that it’s not being made unnecessarily difficult by certain societal hurdles that stand in the way, that should not exist.”
Black women are getting more educated, but this also increases the likelihood that they will have student loans. Compared to other female borrowers, Black women had the most undergraduate student loan debt, with an average of $41,466.05 a year after graduation, per Bankrate.
Lenders consider amounts owed on student loans when determining mortgage eligibility, which could make it more challenging for potential homebuyers to qualify for a mortgage or save for a downpayment.
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