Minority and Immigrant Homeownership Experience: Evidence from the 2009 American Housing Survey

Kusum Mundra, Rutgers University

Using the 2009 national sample of the American Housing Survey, first, this paper examines whether the well-known homeownership gap for the minorities and immigrants improved during the recent housing market in the U.S. Second, using the national mover sample of the 2009 AHS, this paper explores whether the recent housing bust was more severe for the minorities and the immigrants, particularly if they obtained mortgage during the peak subprime boom. Estimates from hazard model shows that Blacks had the lowest gain in their first-homeownership and the highest exit from homeownership in the recent housing market. For Hispanics, homeownership did not increase significantly and neither did they face a higher exit from homeownership. However, Hispanic immigrants had a worse homeownership experience than the Hispanic natives. Immigrants, overall, had significantly lower homeownership and higher exit from homeownership than the natives, though, immigrants who were citizens had lower exit from homeownership than other immigrants.