Continued Success or Caught in the Housing Bubble? U.S. and Foreign-Black Housing Market Outcomes from 2007-2011

Rebbeca Tesfai, Temple University

The recent housing market crisis led to a drastic drop in homeownership and house values nationwide, with blacks bearing the brunt of the economic decline. While numerous studies document the disproportionate impact of the housing market crisis on blacks, no research investigates nativity differences among blacks. Given that immigrants lost less than the native-born during the housing market crisis, especially in new immigrant gateways, black immigrant homeownership and house value may differ from U.S.-born blacks. I use the 2005-2007 and 2009-2011 pooled ACS to investigate differences in likelihood of homeownership and house value among blacks nationwide and in major settlement areas. I find that black immigrants experienced larger declines in homeownership and house value than U.S.-born blacks, and these losses were largest in new immigrant settlement areas. These results indicate that black immigrants were harder hit by the housing market crash than even U.S.-born blacks.