Good afternoon —
I'm writing from the frozen tundra of Texas, and from this vantage point I have never been so glad to have a dispersed, remote workforce! A year ago, HousingWire had just a few staff members living outside of the DFW metroplex, but COVID changed all that. Just looking at our editorial staff, 4 out of the 12 are now distributed across the country in New York, Colorado, Phoenix and LA. And none of them are currently without power, water or internet!
Today, NAR released its 2021 Snapshot of Race and Homebuying in America, which showed that nationwide, those who could afford to buy the typical home broke down along these lines:
- 43% of Black Americans
- 63% of White Americans
- 71% of Asian Americans
- 54% of Hispanic Americans
The study also found that Black homebuyers' mortgage applications are 2.5 times as likely to be rejected as applications from white home shoppers. The leading factor in those rejections? A high debt-to-income ratio, which is directly tied to the student loan debt Black households are carrying (median of $40,000 per household).
As a candidate, President Biden promised to cancel $10,000 in student loan debt. He has stood by that since being elected, but on Tuesday pushed back against calls by Democratic lawmakers for him to cancel up to $50,000 in student loan debt through executive action.
Biden's proposed $15,000 tax credit for first-time homebuyers has been widely hailed as a way to bridge the homeownership gap between Black and white homeowners, but that amount would do nothing to change the fundamental problem of high debt-to-income ratios for prospective Black homebuyers.
Until tomorrow —
Sarah Wheeler
HousingWire Editor in Chief
EmoticonEmoticon