Demographics

Despite a housing market that has remained solid during the COVID-19 outbreak, the hesitancy of potential sellers is contributing to one of the most acute shortages of available homes in decades.

About 54% of properties underwent bidding wars in July with some metro areas peaking at 75%, according to Redfin.

While Black homeownership just rose to its highest level in 16 years, it's still the lowest of any racial demographic and 29 percentage points behind white people.

An industry coalition wants to ensure borrowers who took out certain types of loans to fund their education aren’t locked out of access to historically low mortgage rates.

With over 4 million millennials entering prime home buying age each year through 2023, purchase activity will be driven much higher, according to Ellie Mae.

Housing prices continued to grow in June, maintaining a streak in monthly increases that began in February 2012. But the trend could be reversed in 2021 with the resurgent effects of the coronavirus, according to CoreLogic.

Black homeownership grew for the fourth quarter in a row, hitting its largest percentage since 2004 despite disproportionate impacts of the coronavirus.

Down payment assistance programs remain an important tool for increasing minority homeownership, but especially more so because of the pandemic.

As the country wrestles economic volatility, millennial homeownership demand rises, fueled by historically low mortgage rates.

How the mortgage and housing industries react to the current civil rights moment could shape policies and bridge the homeownership divide for the Black community.