LendingTree: Homeownership Rates Among Latinos Remain Low Across Nation’s Largest Metros

Since the end of the Great Recession, Latino homeownership rates have been on the rebound. In 2010, Latino Americans lived in an average of 8.72% of owner-occupied homes across the nation’s 50 largest metropolitan areas. By 2019, that number rose to 10.48%.

Despite these gains, though, homeownership rates among Latino Americans are still proportionately low relative to the overall size of the Latino population in the United States.

A few factors are contributing to this trend. For starters, Latino Americans, especially those who identify as nonwhite, tend to have both lower credit scores and incomes than the national average. As a result, they’re less likely to be approved for a home loan. Additionally, many Latinos report facing discrimination when trying to buy a home. This means that even if a Latino buyer has a strong credit score and a solid income, they might be locked out of homeownership opportunities.

While the specific reasons why Latino Americans tend to own a disproportionately small number of homes can vary, there’s no question that existing barriers make homeownership harder for them.

To analyze where disparities in homeownership rates are the greatest relative to population, LendingTree used U.S. Census data to rank the nation’s 50 largest metros based on the difference between the share of owner-occupied homes in an area owned by Latinos and the overall percentage of residents in those metros who are Latino.

Key findings

• Americans who identify as Latino own a disproportionately small percentage of homes in all of the nation’s 50 largest metros. Across all 50 metros, Latino people represent about 17% of the population, however, an average of only 10.5% of owner-occupied homes in these metros are owned by Latinos.
• Metros where Latinos make up a larger share of the population tend to be where that demographic owns the smallest number of homes relative to its population.
• The percentage of owner-occupied homes that belong to Latino Americans is higher in 2019 than it was in 2018, and tied with 2017 for the highest it has been since 2010. In 2019, the share was 10.49%, compared to 9.87% in 2018. Since 2010, the share has not fallen below 8.72% and has grown nearly every year in the past decade. Some of these gains can likely be attributed to higher incomes among Latinos.
• Pittsburgh, St. Louis and Cincinnati are the metros where the difference between the share of owner-occupied homes by Latinos and the overall population of this demographic is the smallest. In part, because Latino Americans make up such a tiny portion of the population in these metros, the average difference across all three metros is only -1.33%.
• Los Angeles, San Diego and Riverside, Calif., are the metros where the spread between the share of owner-occupied homes lived in by Latinos and the overall population of that group is the largest. Across these three metros, an average of 44% of the population identifies as Latino. However, an average of only 28.3% of the owner-occupied homes in those metros are owned by a Latino person.

Metros where Latinos own the largest number of homes relative to their overall population

No. 1: Pittsburgh

• % of the population — Latino: 1.9%
• Median household income — Latino: $62,577
• % of owner-occupied homes — Latino: 0.84%
• Difference between % of owner-occupied homes and % of population: -1.06%

No. 2: St. Louis

• % of the population — Latino: 3.1%
• Median household income — Latino: $61,584
• % of owner-occupied homes — Latino: 1.84%
• Difference between % of owner-occupied homes and % of population: -1.26%

No. 3: Cincinnati

• % of the population — Latino: 3.4%
• Median household income — Latino: $53,072
• % of owner-occupied homes — Latino: 1.72%
• Difference between % of owner-occupied homes and % of population: -1.68%

Metros where Latinos own the smallest number of homes relative to their overall population

No. 1: Los Angeles

• % of the population — Latino: 45.1%
• Median household income — Latino: $62,739
• % of owner-occupied homes — Latino: 27.42%
• Difference between % of owner-occupied homes and % of population: -17.68%

No. 2: San Diego

• % of the population — Latino: 34.1%
• Median household income — Latino: $64,198
• % of owner-occupied homes — Latino: 19.27%
• Difference between % of owner-occupied homes and % of population: -14.83%

No. 3: Riverside, Calif.

% of the population — Latino: 52.1%
Median household income — Latino: $65,892
% of owner-occupied homes — Latino: 38.2%
Difference between % of owner-occupied homes and % of population: -13.9%

Methodology

This study ranks the nation’s 50 largest Metro Statistical Areas, or “MSAs,” by the difference between the percentage of owner-occupied homes in that area that are owned by those who identify as Latino and the share of an area’s population that identifies as Latino. The further this difference is from zero, the more disproportionate is the number of Latino homeowners in an area.

Latino is used in this study for those who are identified in the Census as Latino or Hispanic.

Specifically, the U.S. Census Bureau defines a person who identifies as Latino or Hispanic as being a person of Cuban, Mexican, Puerto Rican, South or Central American or of another Spanish culture or origin, regardless of race.

The population, homeownership and income data used in this study are based on estimates from the Census Bureau’s 2019 American Community Survey. It should be noted that the data in the survey is estimated, so there is a slight margin or error of up to 5% for our analysis.

LendingTree research analyst Jacob Channel contributed to this study.