Reckoning with Past… Laying Bricks for the Future

The time is long overdue for reckoning with the past. Black Americans still wait for the nation’s promises to be fulfilled. I speak not only from experience, but also as president-elect of the National Association of Real Estate Brokers (NAREB). Systemic mortgage disparities, blatant sales deterrents, the pervasiveness of redlining, and decades-old discriminatory federal policies have all conspired to keep Black homeownership below the 50% mark. True reckoning—in which this country pays its debt to Black Americans—has yet to occur. To understand the intractability of the racial wealth gap, let’s consider a bit of NAREB history. In 1947, 12 visionary Black real estate professionals from across the country joined together to form NAREB. The 11 men and one woman, Nannie Black, had experienced blatant marketplace racism. This compelled them to help Black WWII veterans use their VA loan benefits to buy a home. Many Black veterans had been denied this opportunity. There should have been a national outcry, but none arose. NAREB, in its fledgling state, took up the charge and prepared to ensure that Black Americans, especially those who valiantly fought for democracy and freedom on foreign battlefields, now had a growing legion of real estate professionals who stepped up to help them fight for Democracy in Housing on their native soil.

Over the next seven decades, NAREB expanded its reach among Black real estate professionals and more widely into the Black community-at-large. We listened; we learned from legacy NAREB members; we absorbed the heart-wrenching stories told by Black consumers—each

one riddled with racial bias, dishonest practices, disrespect, lending disparities and abject disappointment they experienced on the road to homeownership. The promise of the American Dream for Black Americans had yet to be fulfilled even with the passage of the 1968 Fair Housing Act.

Black Americans continue to face such challenges in the homebuying process and closing the economic divide. Just look at the numbers: Today, the Black homeownership rate of 45.1% ranks just a few percentage points above the 1970 rate of 42% two years after the passage of the Fair Housing Act. Instead of being a victory, the legislation passed without enforcement power. With few exceptions, Black homeownership has risen insignificantly since the Act’s passage. The result? A very real loss in generational wealth for Black Americans. In comparison the current non-Hispanic White homeownership rate stands at 73.8%, representing a wealth gap of just under 29%.

From its inception to the present, NAREB leadership has listened, and over the years strategized, sought legal remedies to make the real estate profession more equitable, advocated and pushed for federal policies, while crafting approaches at all levels to break down the barriers to growing Black homeownership.

Closing the racial wealth gap through homeownership remains at the core of NAREB’s mission. A 2020 Brookings Institute report notes that, “the median white household has a net worth of $171,000, 10 times the net worth of the median Black household, $17,100…The poorest 20% of American households have a net worth of less than $4,700; many of these households have a negative wealth due to debt. Of these households, 26% identify as Black. The richest of American households have a net worth of more than $500,000; 3% of these households identify as Black.”

As NAREB’s incoming president—and only the third woman in that office in the association’s history—I have prepared a strategic action agenda based upon the findings in NAREB’s research-based State of Housing in Black America (SHIBA) report. Issued annually, each edition lays bare the systemic barriers and biases to the growth of Black homeownership. The SHIBA report translates to actions in which NAREB focuses our advocacy efforts, engages our constituency, and offers our informed guidance to prospective Black American homebuyers with the anticipation that the first step toward wealth building through homeownership materializes.

In my two-year term as NAREB’s president, I plan to grow our focus on Black women businessowners, real estate professionals and potential homeowners. According to U.S. Census data, Black women head 27% of all Black households which represents more than twice the 12% rate for “all women.”

We are entrepreneurs building businesses or solo practices. In fact, prior to the onset of the COVID pandemic, Black women were starting businesses at an astonishing rate. According to Forbes magazine, “Black women represent 42% of new women-owned businesses— three times their share of the female population—and 36% of all Blackowned employer businesses.”

In the coming months, NAREB will unveil a women’s initiative to reach and to focus attention on spending power on investing in real estate, pursuing home ownership, and growing existing real estate practitioners’ careers in real estate. Women in Real Estate, or W.I.R.E. will focus on the development of effective tools and techniques for Black women consumers as well as for Black women real estate professionals. I believe NAREB women have an obligation to prepare the next generations for success by sharing and teaching and supporting other Black women on their journey to their economic goals.

Continue to watch as NAREB continues our historical commitment to “laying brick for the future” in ways that transform this season of reckoning into the kind of real growth and progress for Black Americans that will strengthen our nation and fortify a greater future for us all.