Black Homeownership Climbed in 2019

Recent data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s Housing Vacancy Survey [pdf] show a sudden reversal of the trend of black homeownership—which increased from 40.6 percent in Q2 of 2019 to 42.7 percent in Q3 and 44 percent in Q4. The increase in black homeownership still lags far behind the country's total homeownership rate of 65.1 percent in Q4, which reached the highest rate since 2013.  

Sarah Strochak, Laurie Goodman, and Sheryl Prado provide analysis of the recent data, focusing specifically about the sudden improvements in black homeownership, which they describe as, "the highest recorded level since 2012 [which] represents an 8 percent increase (or 3.4 percentage points) over six months."

The ongoing crisis of black homeownership has been well documented, including by other researchers from the Urban Institute, so what should the public make of this sudden improvement? The article presents a methodology for understanding the implications of the data, before presenting the conclusion that despite the improvement in black homeownership rates, the numbers still lag far behind, and require "much work" to be done.