Black and Latino households got more mortgages than ever in 2020 — but continued to buy houses in only a small number of Mass. communities
According to a new report that tracks lending data in the state, more Black and Latino households are buying their first homes in Massachusetts than ever before, though overall they continued to choose only a handful of towns, the Globe’s Milton J. Valencia reports.
And even while Black and Latino families have picked up their purchasing pace, the percentage of loans for those borrowers in 2020 still remained well below their respective share of the overall state population, according to the report — the first comprehensive look at lending data in the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Our analysis shows a homeownership market in Massachusetts that, while serving more homebuyers of color than ever before, is still not closing the wide racial homeownership gap in the Commonwealth,” said Carrie Bernstein, research manager and state data center manager at the UMass Donahue Institute, which conducted the analysis in partnership with the Massachusetts Community & Banking Council.
The report was consistent with other recent analyses of the state’s homeownership market, which have found that soaring housing costs across Great Boston have priced many families out of the city, forcing first-time homebuyers to look to buy their dream home in other parts of the state.
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