This is Why Asian American Homeownership Rates Fall Behind

The surge in hate crimes and job losses for the Asian American community has resulted in fewer seeking new communities and homes. The Asian American and Pacific Islander homeownership rate of 60.6% may be higher than other communities of color, notes Realtor.com, but it’s significantly behind the white homeownership rate of 73.8%. And the homeownership gap remains despite Asian Americans earning more money than the national average. There is a fear that moving into an area without a large Asian American community could result in discrimination, especially now at the time where there is a rise in hate crimes against Asian Americans.

The problem is the community tends to live in more expensive areas on the coasts.

When they do buy homes, they often spend more as real estate is more expensive in these areas. The median home value for Asian Americans was $472,500—compared with a national median home list price of $380,000 in May, according to the most recent Realtor.com® data. It was lower for Pacific Islanders, with median values of $352,100. Pacific Islanders have lower median household incomes, of $66,464, and homeownership rates, of just 40.1%.

More than 2 million Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders were the victims of hate incidents since the beginning of the pandemic. The prejudice most commonly took the form of verbal harassment, but members of the community also reported being shunned, physically assaulted, coughed and spit on, and trolled online.

To put this into context, there are nearly 19.27 million Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders in the U.S., making up about 5.9% of the population.

“There’s the fear of moving to places that don’t have large Asian American communities because of the discrimination and the rise of anti-Asian sentiment,” says AREAA Executive Director Hope Atuel. “We’ve heard of people who have turned down job offers because of the fear. Fear can paralyze people.”

On top of everything else, language barriers in the buying process were an another obstacle that many members of this community faced. Many in the community don’t realize that they don’t need 20% down to purchase homes and there are other loan options available.

In addition, while many Asian Americans have good-paying jobs and savings, they may not have built up sufficient credit histories to help them qualify for the best mortgages.

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