Minority homeownership rates remain challenged compared to that of white Americans, but some of the gaps are seeing a decrease, according to the National Association of REALTORS®’ (NAR) 2025 Snapshot of Race and Home Buying in America.
The report dives in by noting that overall homeownership is up compared to a decade ago. The data shows that the homeownership rate reached 65.2% in 2023, up from 63.5% in 2013—translating to an increase of approximately 11.8 million more homeowners.
However, despite growth in all racial and ethnic groups across this time period, NAR’s data found that Black homeownership continues to see the largest lag. Specifically, the gap between Black and white homeownership rates has increased from 27% in 2013 to 28% in 2023.
Although the Black homeownership rate has the largest gap to white homeownership, all minority groups continue to lag behind that of white Americans. The current white homeownership rate sits at 72.4%, followed by the Asian rate of 63.4%, the Hispanic rate of 51% and the Black rate of 44.7%.
Even though Black homeownership is still experiencing a gap, in 2023, it did see a significant milestone—NAR’s data reported that the Black homeownership rate achieved the highest annual gain among all races at +0.6 percentage points. This is compared to the white and Asian rate increases of 0.1 percentage points, and the Hispanic rate loss of 0.1 percentage point.
Looking at the growth over the 2013 – 2023 period, NAR found that the Hispanic homeownership rate saw the largest increase at 5.8% or 3.5 million homeowners. This is followed by the Asian rate growth at 5.6% or 1.6 million homeowners, the white rate growth at 3.6% or 702,200 homeowners and the Black rate growth at 2.8% or nearly 1.2 million homeowners.
In terms of first-time homebuyers, minority groups lead over white Americans in this sector. Hispanic Americans claim the majority at 33.6% households aged 25 – 40, followed by Asian Americans at 32.6%, Black Americans at 28% and white Americans at 23.4%. Asian Americans saw the largest growth over the last decade (34%), compared to the 4.7% loss seen by white Americans. NAR also specifically noted that there are 21% more young Hispanic households in Hispanic communities than 10 years ago.
“Non-white homebuyers are more likely to be first-time buyers, underscoring the importance of changing demographics and the age of local populations, which will increase non-white homeownership over time,” said Jessica Lautz, NAR deputy chief economist and vice president of research.
First-time homebuyers are also often transitioning from renting, and different racial and ethnic groups see very different levels of purchasing power in this transition. Asian renters actually boast the highest purchasing power at $301,800, higher than that of the white renters threshold of $220,770. Hispanic renters follow behind white renters with a purchasing power of $214,100, with Black renters lagging in last due to higher affordability challenges with a threshold $163,080.
Affordability tends to be more of a challenge for minority homebuyers in terms of housing costs like homeowners insurance. Overall, homeowners insurance has grown 53% in the last decade, from $860 per year in 2013 to $1,310 in 2023. Racially, Black homeowners pay the most for insurance at $1,360 per year, followed by Asian homeowners at $1,330, white homeowners at $1,310 and Hispanic homeowners at $1,300.
“Today’s first-time homebuyers continue to face housing affordability and credit-access challenges, but the situation nationwide varies when assessing purchasing power,” Lautz commented. “Buyers have always had to consider total home costs—including utilities, insurance and commuting expenses—which are especially important when taking the initial steps into ownership.”
Discussing discrimination, NAR noted that Black homebuyers and Asian homebuyers reported the most discrimination during their transaction in the type of loan product they were offered at 47% and 33%, respectively. For mortgage denials, Black (21%) and Hispanic (17%) applicants saw higher rates than white (11%) and Asian (9%) applicants. In terms of discrimination based on race, 5% of Black and Asian buyers experienced this, followed by 2% of Hispanic buyers.
For the full report, click here.
