New York has long been one of the world’s most prized real estate markets, but Black people appear to be overlooked when it comes to owning and investing in it. New numbers from the Center for an Urban Future (CUF) show that Black homeownership in New York City fell from 209,524 in 2002 to 178,659 in 2023, a 14.7% decline.
In the past, fair housing programs, low interest rates, and the wider availability of mortgages and increased incomes for Black public-sector and unionized workers helped people buy homes in neighborhoods like southeast Queens, central Brooklyn, and parts of the Bronx. Black homeownership in New York City increased for decades, but the city’s Commission on Racial Equity says the current Black homeownership rate is only at 32.7%.
Predatory lending, foreclosure waves after 2008, deed theft, tax liens, rising repair costs, and estate issues have stripped many families of homes they had expected to keep.
“That should be a major warning sign that there’s something wrong in New York City’s housing market,” said Eli Dvorkin, editorial and policy director at CUF. “That’s not just a housing problem. It’s also a wealth-building problem, a neighborhood stability problem, and an economic mobility problem.”
Dvorkin said the city already has programs that could boost Black homeownership, but those programs are too limited to help the people who need them. “The city has several promising homeownership programs, programs that the Mamdani administration is also embracing. But what it does not yet have is a scaled homeownership strategy,” he said. HomeFirst has helped just over 3,000 households become homeowners in nearly two decades, Dvorkin said. Open Door has financed about 451 units since 2017. The Affordable Neighborhood Cooperative Program has created roughly 700 affordable homeownership units since 2014. HomeFix, which provides low- or no-interest and forgivable repair loans, served fewer than 100 homeowners from 2019 through June 2022. “What we have on the books today are programs that serve no more than a few dozen to a few hundred households each year,” added Dvorkin, “which on their own can’t close a gap that’s measured in tens of thousands of families.”
CUF is urging the Mamdani administration and City Council to set a goal to help 5,000 low- and moderate-income households buy their first home, and help 5,000 current lower-income homeowners keep their homes and build wealth by 2028. Dvorkin said this will require more homes for sale and support for existing homeowners.
The Mamdani administration’s current housing plan, Dvorkin said, already pushes for payment assistance, the creation of permanently affordable co-ops through an Our Home initiative, the expansion of HomeFix, and support for community land trusts that allow nonprofits to take charge of land for long-term affordability. Dvorkin noted that “one of the biggest barriers isn’t just assembling the down payment; it’s also being able to afford that monthly payment at a time with significantly higher interest rates than we had just a few years ago.”
On the preservation side, CUF wants scaled repair assistance, estate planning, title clearing, foreclosure prevention, deed theft counseling, and aid for multigenerational households. Dvorkin said programs do not have to be race-exclusive to aid Black homeowners.
“Policies that are designed to promote neighborhood stability and wealth preservation in lower and moderate-income communities will benefit Black New Yorkers,” he said, “without necessarily having to be designated as such.”
