A report released this week by the New York Attorney General’s Office (OAG) once again puts “the finger on the sore spot” in a persistent racial gap, in almost all regions of New York: The large proportion of homeowners are white, almost doubling the number of African American and Hispanic owners.
Furthermore, another devastating reality is described with very clear numbers: The real estate market imposes higher rates, more complications, more paperwork, on people of color.
The new OAG report revealed that “non-white” prospective homebuyers are more likely to be charged higher interest rates on their loans. And they are more likely to use more expensive loans from the Federal Housing Administration.
In the event that they are already owners, it is very difficult to be approved to refinance their loans at a lower rate.
The New York prosecutor’s office examined for the first time applications for loans for the purchase of a home throughout the State. Obviously, applying for a mortgage from a financial institution is the first step, but several structural problems prevent you from even “knocking on that door.”
“Disparities in applications drive them away from the credit market. These institutions do not open branches in neighborhoods where the majority of people are of color, adding to the complexity of the loan process,” the analysis highlights.
As was predictable, it is established that lenders received fewer applications from blacks and Latinos, when contrasted with their presence in the state population, with 7.6% of purchase applications from African Americans and 9.5% from Spanish-speaking applicants.
These figures are half the representation of each group in the general population of New York.
“Not only are Black and Hispanic New Yorkers disproportionately underrepresented among mortgage applicants, but all applicants of color are denied mortgages, or are charged higher rates, regardless of their credit score, income, loan size and other factors,” says the analysis.
With good credit, but…
The Prosecutor’s Office even demonstrated in this investigation that minority people, with higher credit scores, compared to white applicants, are denied a mortgage, at a rate of almost 50%.
As interpreted by Frankie Miranda, president of the Hispanic Federation, it is “unacceptable” and “alarming” that black and Latino New Yorkers continue to face higher costs and interest rates that exclude them from the real estate market.
“It is time for the federal and state governments to begin breaking down these barriers so that all New Yorkers, regardless of race or zip code, have the opportunity to own a home,” Miranda urged.
This report not only exposes in more detail and evidence what is already historically common knowledge. Instead, he proposes to speed up the approval of new legislation and state regulations, to open more doors to more New Yorkers to their own homes. And break this cycle described as discrimination, in all its forms.
“Unfortunately, poor access to affordable credit remains widespread across our state, reinforcing the history of segregation, creating a disparity in homeownership, and fueling the racial wealth gap,” reasoned U.S. Attorney Letitia James in presenting this report.
Also shown in the breakdown of this new data, white households are 25 percent more likely than Asian households to own their home, and more than 50 percent more likely than black or Latino households to even own their home. dreaming of having the ownership documents for a house or apartment, or being approved for a house mortgage.
“More than 50 years after the passage of the Fair Housing Act, it is shameful that systemic racial discrimination still exists in our housing market. There is still a long way to go before the American Dream is equally available to everyone,” reacted Ian Wilder, executive director of Long Island Housing Services, Inc.
The trend of very low housing averages owned by people of color is present throughout the state, but the city of Albany, the state capital, is specified as having the second largest gap between white and black home ownership. blacks of any city in the country, second only to Minneapolis.
In NYC only millionaires can buy
The OAG outline only highlights the statistics and trends of regions, outside the five boroughs of the Big Apple, a city where reality shows that even renting a comfortable apartment, without leaks or pests, is increasingly elusive. , not only of the working class, but of young professionals.
“For Hispanics who live here, it is always a dream to buy a house. But the majority can achieve it, but by acquiring it in their countries of origin. Who can even dream of buying something decent, right here in the Bronx, which is the poorest area? Here we are condemned to struggle to pay the rent. And whoever wants a house of their own has to leave,” said Puerto Rican Marión Vásquez, a grandmother of six grandchildren who grew up in New York and moved to Florida.
Indeed, properties in the ‘capital of the world’, which continues to boast the reputation of the city with the most expensive square meter in the world, continue to rise into skyscrapers, but only for those who can pay millions of dollars.
“With what you pay here, for renting a non-luxurious little space, you can cover a mortgage in other towns. Buying here is something only billionaires can think of. And the more time passes, everything gets worse and more classist. After the pandemic, everything got worse,” said the Puerto Rican.
According to the annual report of the luxury real estate company Douglas Elliman and the consulting agency Knight Frank, the year 2022 closed with a total of 244 sales of ‘superprime’ homes in the Big Apple, with a price above $10 million and 43 ‘ ultraprime’, all those that are above $25 million.
In fact, some investigations carried out by El Diario derived from the 2020 Census, at least 17,000 residents, mostly Dominican, moved out of Washington Heights and Inwood, between 2010 and 2020, while in the same period, both neighborhoods received 4,824 targets.
In consultations with community boards, there is a broad consensus that many young professionals, children of immigrants, who grew up in Hispanic-majority neighborhoods, such as Upper Manhattan, Queens or The Bronx, continue to move to other states such as Philadelphia, Florida, New Jersey and Connecticut, because they follow the route of places where they dream of paying a reasonable mortgage, rather than a high income.
“Life here in New York City is getting smaller every year for millionaires. Then your life will be to work, to pay thousands of dollars in rent and get around by bicycle. That’s why I have to go to another state,” shared the young lawyer, Roland Peña, 28 years old, of Quisqueyan origin.
In a national survey, conducted in March 2022, and cited by the OAG “nearly three-quarters of respondents nationwide listed homeownership as the defining characteristic of the American Dream, above having a successful career.” , obtain a college degree, own a car, have children or be able to retire.”
Four “keys” to open credits to minorities:
The report released by Attorney General Letitia James identifies a number of state-level policy solutions that could help close the racial homeownership gap, including:
- Subsidize down payments and interest rates for first-generation home buyers of color, to make it easier for families who have never purchased a home to obtain credit.
- Increase funding to nonprofit financial institutions that can support communities of color underserved by traditional banks.
- Pass the New York Public Banking Act that would create a regulatory framework for cities, towns and regions to establish more flexible credit.
- Increase resources for fair lending investigations by government agencies and strengthen the New York Human Rights Law to expressly prohibit lending practices that have a disparate impact on communities of color.
Anatomy of real estate in NY:
- 67% of white New York households own the residential units where they live compared to 34% of “non-white” families, according to the American Community Survey.
- 27% of Hispanics own their homes, in the rest of the country this figure rises to 51%
- 32% of African Americans fall into the group of privileged to have their own home, but the average for the entire country is 43%