Report: Black Homebuyers in Pennsylvania Still Face Discrimination

A report that analyzed the experiences of over 200 clients of the Pennsylvania Housing Finance Agency found that “Black homebuyers still face substantial barriers to homeownership in Pennsylvania.” As Kate Giammarise writes for WESA, the report highlighted some key findings:

• People of color are more likely to be denied loans than white non-Hispanic people.
• People seeking loans for homes in substantially minority areas are more likely to be denied than applicants in white areas.
• Black non-Hispanic and Hispanic people are more likely to experience a denial than white non-Hispanic people of similar qualifications.

The report outlines some recommendations, including “down-payment assistance programs should be expanded but shouldn’t be so cumbersome as to put the people using them at a disadvantage when trying to buy a home, and lenders need better training about communicating with applicants of color.”

The report seeks to address a significant difference in homeownership rates. “Rates of homeownership among whites are roughly 30 percentage points above the Black and Hispanic rates in Pennsylvania, the report noted, contributing to a wide racial wealth gap” that prevents families from building intergenerational wealth through real estate.