Historically, members of some racial and ethnic groups have suffered discrimination in buying homes and accessing home mortgages. A home is a vital financial asset for a family and an investment in both the local neighborhood and surrounding community.

MetroWest has greater racial and ethnic disparities in homeownership rates than the nation as a whole. In 2016-20, the rate was 69% among white residents, compared to 35% among African American, 34% among Hispanic and 58% among Asian residents. Nationwide, homeownership was substantially higher among African American and Hispanic residents, at 42% and 49%, respectively. The region's rates were slightly better than Massachusetts as a whole.

Since 2000, the region's homeownership rate among Asian residents increased the most, by 11 percentage points, compared to increases of 9 points among Hispanics, 2 points among African American residents and 2 points among white residents.

A variety of research has shown how disparities in homeownership are connected to racial inequities within systems beyond housing, including financial services, labor market and intergenerational wealth. Historic practices including redlining, exclusionary mortgage practices and restrictive covenants barring property from being owned by members of specific groups directly locked people out of homeownership. These had intergenerational effects when people of color were unable to benefit from wealth transfers of home equity as white homebuyers have benefited. Since Black and Latino households generally have lower wages and wealth accumulation, they have less resources for down payments and higher debt to income ratios. With lower credit scores than other racial/ethnic groups, communities of color may be less likely to qualify for mortgages as underwriting standards increase. Many in the Black and Latino community may lack information about the home buying process and choose to stay renters. Discrimination during the home buying process also influences whether people of color buy a house. Researchers have found that during the search process, people of color were shown fewer houses and provided less information than whites.

The multiyear figures are from the Census Bureau's American Community Survey. The bureau combined five years of responses to the survey to provide estimates for smaller geographic areas and increase the precision of its estimates. However, because the information came from a survey, the samples responding to the survey were not always large enough to produce reliable results, especially in small geographic areas. CGR has noted on data tables the estimates with relatively large margins of error. Estimates with three asterisks have the largest margins, plus or minus 50% or more of the estimate. Two asterisks mean plus or minus 35%-50%, and one asterisk means plus or minus 20%-35%. For all estimates, the confidence level is 90%, meaning there is 90% probability the true value (if the whole population were surveyed) would be within the margin of error (or confidence interval). The survey provides data on characteristics of the population that used to be collected only during the decennial census. Data for this indicator are released annually in December.