To all the agents in the house,
The legacy of outgoing National Association of Realtors' president Charlie Oppler will at least partly rest in the apology that he gave last year for NAR's past opposition to the 1967 Fair Housing Act. Oppler doubled down on these words at NAR's annual convention in San Diego last week stating that the trade group contributed to "systemic housing discrimination."
"We were wrong," Oppler said. "We've got to move forward and do things, and we are doing that."
By one metric - the homeownership rate - there has not been progress since NAR's days of opposing the Fair Housing Act.
The homeownership rate perhaps says nothing directly about overt racism. But it does say who has successfully participated in the real estate process.
Also, a higher homeownership rate would seem to be priority one for NAR and its agents. More homes sold mean more sales commissions and, potentially, more people interested in becoming a real estate agent and paying dues to NAR.
In 1960, four years before the Civil Rights Act and seven years before the Fair Housing Act, the Black homeownership rate was 38%, and the white homeownership rate stood at 64%. By the third quarter of 2021, the ratio between Black and white homeownership rates was basically identical to what it was 60 years ago: 44% of Black American adults were homeowners, according to the St. Louis Federal Reserve, compared to 74% white adults.
There are a range of theories for why this is. At the NAR convention, National Housing Conference director David Dworkin laid the blame partly on federal regulators, mortgage lenders and even consumer-facing websites like Zillow for creating the false impression that someone needs a 20% down payment to qualify for a mortgage. Dworkin also said that there are 3.4 million "mortgage-ready Black Americans" – with annual income north of $100,000 and a credit score above 700 – who are "not interested" in owning a home.
"They are not interested because nobody is making the case for them," Dworkin said. (The case Dworkin would make is that homeownership builds intergenerational wealth, and, over time, will diminish economic inequality among races.)
However, a Harris poll conducted with Coldwell Banker released this week found that owning a home is an "important goal" for Black and Hispanic adults as much as it is for white adults.
Whatever the reasons, there's a persistent racial homeownership gap in the country that speeches, mea culpas and pictures of non-white real estate agents and homeowners have yet to solve.
Agents, is NAR doing what they can to boost minority homeownership? And what, if any, role do you have in finding more minority customers?
Please let me know. I can be emailed anonymously at mblake@housingwire.com.
Sincerely,
Matthew Blake
Senior Real Estate Reporter
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