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LATION CIVIL RIGHTS FACT SHEETS

Fact Sheet:

Barriers to Homeownership

 

  1. Latinos have the lowest rate of homeownership in the DC metropolitan area. The homeownership rate for Latinos in the DC metropolitan area is 44% as compared to 72.9% for whites and 48.6% for African Americans.

 

  1. Latinos have the lowest rate of homeownership in suburban Maryland, suburban Virginia and DC. In Maryland, the Latino homeownership rate is 48.7% as compared to 75.3% for whites and 51.5% for African Americans. In Virginia, the Latino homeownership rate is 45.7% as compared to 72% for whites and 47.8% for blacks. In DC, the Latino homeownership is 24.2% as compared to 47.2% for whites and 38.8% for blacks.

 

  1. The rate of Latino homeownership in the District (24.2%) is significantly lower than the national rate of Latino homeownership (46.3%), although it should be noted that, across racial groups, homeownership rates in the District (40.8%) are lower than overall homeownership rates nationally (67.4%).

 

  1. The rate of Latino homeownership is much lower in DC than in suburban Maryland or Virginia. In the District, 24.2% of Hispanic households own a home. In suburban Maryland, 48.7% of Latinos own a home. In suburban Virginia, 45.7% of Latinos own a home.

 

  1. The rate of Latino homeownership in the DC metropolitan area (44%) is lower than the national Latino homeownership rate (46.3%). In contrast, the homeownership rate for African-American households in the DC metropolitan area (48.6%) is higher than the national rate for African-American households (47.2%).

 

  1. Homeownership rates are much higher for native-born Latinos and for naturalized Latino citizens than for Latino non-citizens. Of Latino naturalized citizens, 57.1% own their homes, while 48.1% of Latino native-born citizens own their homes. Meanwhile, the homeownership rate for non-citizen Latinos is only 30.2%.

 

  1. Homeownership rates are generally higher for older age groups. Latinos are a particularly young group demographically. In 2000, a third of all Latino households were under 34 years of age.

 

  1. According to statistics from 1998, the median monthly costs for homeownership for Latino households in Washington, DC was $1,227 (this includes mortgages and maintenance costs). For a Latino family earning the median income of $33,697, homeownership costs would account for almost 44% of their gross income. Close to one-third of Latino households in the Washington, DC metropolitan area have incomes of $30,000 or less.

 

  1. According to statistics from 1998, Latino median income in the DC area, at $41,348, falls far short of the overall area median income for the DC metropolitan area of $59,424.

 

  1. Latino mortgage approval rates for conventional loans in the metropolitan area lag behind the rate for whites in the area at 74.5% compared to 85%. However, approval rates for Latinos are higher in the Washington, DC area than they are nationally. The national mortgage approval rate for Latinos is 58.6%. In addition, Latino mortgage approval rates for conventional loans are significantly higher than the rates for African Americans in the Washington, DC area. The rate for African-Americans is only 64.2%.  Latinos in the DC area are less likely to be denied a loan based on their credit than either African-Americans or whites.

 

  1. The Latino mortgage approval rate for government loans (FHA, VA and FmHA)  is extremely high in the Washington, DC area and is higher than the rate for any other group, including whites. The Latino approval rate for these loans is 88.6%, while the rate for non-Latino whites is 87.3% and the approval rate for blacks was 79.5%.

 

  1. Approximately half of the home purchase loans made to Latinos in the Washington metropolitan area between 1997 and 1999 were government loans rather than conventional loans.

 

  1. Latino homebuyers confront discrimination in 43% of their encounters with sales agents and others in the homebuying process. Similarly, Latinos seeking mortgage loans are affected by discrimination in 48% of their encounters with lenders.

 

  1. In more than one-third of cases, lender staff act discriminatorily by offering FHA products to African-American and Latino testers who were similarly, or better situated, than white testers directed to conventional mortgages.

 

  1. Nationally, subprime loans, those most likely to be predatory lending loans, represent 12% of the conventional home purchase loans to Latinos, but just 4.8% of the loans to non-Latino whites. Participation in the subprime market by African-Americans is higher with subprime loans making up at 23.1% of the conventional home purchase loans received by African-Americans.

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