Nearly 55 years after the passage of the Fair Housing Act, which was designed to combat discrimination in all housing sales, financing, and rentals, black homeownership rates remain significantly lower than white homeownership rates. is late.
These are the findings of a study released in March by the National Association of Real Estate Brokers (NAREB) in its annual report, “The State of Black Housing in America” (SHIBA). According to the report, only 45.3% of black households owned a home in 2022, compared to 74.6% of white households.
NAREB Chair Lydia Pope provided historical insight into today’s declining trends in the report’s foreword.
“Black homeownership was at its highest in 2004, at just under 50 percent. But when the housing market collapsed in 2008, Black people were disproportionately affected by predatory lending,” Pope wrote. And even after 15 years, the homeownership population has not fully recovered.”
Last year, St. Louis Realtors publicly apologized for its history of racist behavior. As part of its apology, the group acknowledged decades of laws and policies that created barriers for African Americans who wanted to own homes in and around St. Louis. They also unveiled plans to move forward in stages.
Delicia Lacey, local chapter president of NAREB, spoke at a St. Louis Realtors event last year. “Progress has been made,” she said, but “we still have a long way to go.”
“It will take time to impact the community and see real change,” Lacey stressed.
Lacey has been in the real estate industry for almost 16 years. At her young age of 19, she was hired as vice president of operations overseeing approximately 170 hotels across the United States. She took up real estate in 2015 because marriage and children made her a profession that didn’t take her as much travel, which she said wasn’t all that different from hotel management. But when it comes to her real estate, Lacey said there are ways to build generational wealth for her family.
She credits St. Louis Realtors with initiating a 14-step plan to hold itself accountable to minority communities and minority homeowners. She noted how the agency hired a DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion) manager whose job is to make sure St. Louis Realtors stays on track. But Lacey is concerned about whether the plan will make a big difference in real estate careers for black agents.
“Look at the numbers,” she stressed. “Only 7% of real estate agents in this country are black, and in Missouri that number is much lower. We want to understand how that number impacts the number of black homeowners. You need to understand.”
Lacey said if real estate agents don’t address fundamental issues such as a centuries-old history of housing discrimination, predatory lending and the fact that Black Americans are still recovering from the 2008 housing crisis, He said he could not achieve his agency’s stated mission of “democracy in the world.” The market crash and the sad number of black real estate agents.
“Representation matters,” insists the local NAREB president, who argues that having more Black employees in the field is the only healthy way to increase Black homeownership.
“When you’re trying to change your family, you want to do it with someone who understands you, makes you feel safe, and doesn’t judge you,” Lacey says. “And when it comes to black real estate, we need more black real estate agents.”
Amjad Abdallah, 35, shares Lacey’s passion. His first home buying experience in 2016 made him realize how ignorant he was about the real estate market. Abdalla has been working as a pharmacy technician for the past 14 years. He felt that becoming a homeowner was a good move for safety, but that he should know more about the home buying process, not only for himself but for others as well. I was left with a nagging feeling.
“Healthcare is a female-dominated field, and many of the women I worked with made more money than I did, but they paid more in rent than I paid in mortgages. I realized that there were,” Abdallah explained. “So I started thinking, why don’t they own their own home instead of paying someone else’s mortgage?”
This challenge motivated Abdallah to quit his job and enroll in real estate classes.
“The tuition was affordable, about $700,” he said, adding that he has now completed his classes, taken the real estate exam, and started a brand new career this year.
Abdallah said it took him a while to feel comfortable calling himself a “real estate agent.” But his confidence grew even more when he was troubled by what his sister defined as a “terrible agent.”
“She asked me to help her, and I said, ‘Yes.’ I had spent that much money and wanted to use that knowledge, so I said, ‘Let’s solve this.’ ”Abdallah recalled.
They did it.
“We got the deal done and we got it done,” Abdallah said. “I learned so much from just one transaction and now I have the confidence to say, “Yes, I’m a real estate agent.”
Abdallah emphasized that the real estate field can be difficult for many black people to enter.
“Most of the black real estate agents I meet are middle class, and after they pay the tuition to pass the test, they have to come up with all these other miscellaneous fees before they can sell anything. .
“A lot of Black people don’t have $2,000 or $3,000 lying around to jump into a fee-based field.”
Still, Abdallah is motivated by the idea that she can help keep more low-income African Americans in their homes.
“I reach out to my friends and say, ‘Brother, you have three kids. You have three kids.’ You get an income test from the government every year. Your credit. Clean it up, fix your debt-to-income ratio, and use that income tax check to get you into a house next year.”
Lacey argues that even though becoming a real estate agent is expensive, more African Americans need to join the profession. She even recommends reaching out to young African Americans to make them aware of the possibilities for their future in real estate.
“To change the trajectory, we have to start attending career days and start interacting with these kids so we can get more of us into this real estate industry. .”
Abdallah and Lacy argue that owning real estate, or buying and selling homes, is the healthiest way to build personal and generational wealth. They argue that having more Black real estate agents in the field could play an important role in helping Black people, especially low- and moderate-income people, become homebuyers.
Lacey added that becoming a “good” real estate agent is like any other “entrepreneurial journey.”
“You have to apply, research, and work hard to serve customers. If you do all of that, it can be a great career.”