Minority Homeownership by Congressional District

Home ownership is an important issue for voters in the upcoming election as both presidential candidates push housing policies to address the housing affordability crisis. According to a recent NAHB report, the national homeownership rate is 65%, but when broken down by race, there are large disparities in homeownership. In black and African American households, the homeownership rate was 45%. Hispanic/Latino households fared slightly better at 51%, while all other minority households had a homeownership rate of 55%.

According to the 2023 American Community Survey (ACS), the county with the highest homeownership rate among Black and African American households was Maryland’s 5th District at 80%, although the district’s overall homeownership rate was slightly higher at 82%. In this county, 43% of households were Black/African American. In contrast, California’s 34th District had the lowest homeownership rate among blacks and African Americans in the country, at just 5%. The county also had one of the lowest homeownership rates in the country at 22%. The table below shows the five largest counties with the highest rates of black and African American homeownership.

The top 3 counties with the most homeownership among Hispanic/Latino households were in the Midwest. Michigan’s 1st District had the highest homeownership rate among Hispanic/Latino households (78%), although they made up 2% of the district’s population. The overall county homeownership rate was slightly higher (80%), however, Texas’s 23rd District had a slightly higher Hispanic/Latino homeownership rate than the overall county homeownership rate, at 75% compared to 74%. In this county, Hispanics/Latinos made up a significant portion of the population, making up nearly 60%.

Among all other minority households, Minnesota’s 6th District stood out as having the highest homeownership rate at 85%. This figure also exceeded the area’s overall homeownership rate of 81%. In fact, the 10 largest congressional districts with the highest homeownership rates in this group exceeded the homeownership rate of the district as a whole. Tennessee’s 8th District, which has the second highest minority homeownership rate (83%), outperformed the overall district rate by 11 percentage points.

There were also significant geographic differences in homeownership rates between each racial group, with the largest differences observed among Black and African American households across the country. Homeownership among blacks and African Americans was concentrated in the Southern states, while it was noticeably lower in the Midwest, Mountain West, and parts of the Northeast. In contrast, Hispanic/Latino homeownership rates tended to be higher in southwestern counties, while other minority groups maintained higher rates across the country.

Overall, a consistent geographic pattern of homeownership can be found among minority households. For example, North Dakota and surrounding areas stood out for having far fewer minority homeowners. On the other hand, Southern states, where average sales prices per square foot for single-family single-family homes were below the national average of $150, tended to have higher homeownership rates among minorities.