Access to ownership, however, is far from equal. Black, Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, Native, and immigrant households have long faced systemic barriers. Historic policies like redlining and restrictive covenants laid the groundwork, while today’s practices—appraisal bias, realtor steering, predatory lending, inequitable insurance, and rigid underwriting—continue the exclusion.
Many low and moderate income households, often Black and Latino homeowners, further struggle with tangled titles (heirs’ property) that block access to legal and financial protections for their family property or business (farm or store).
Today, an affordability crisis from rising costs, low wages, income instability, and inflation is straining families nationwide. The impact falls hardest where discrimination, regressive tax policies, and disinvestment compounds these pressures. These overlapping barriers sustain an inequitable housing market, excluding LMI families of color, female-headed households, and rural households from the wealth-building potential of homeownership.
Increases in Net Housing Wealth Drove Wealth Growth, Especially for Black and Hispanic Families
Notes: Figure displays the contributions to growth in average wealth between 2019 and 2022 from various types of assets by race and ethnicity. Source: Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (2023). Accessible version
Heirs’ Property
Heirs’ property is land, homes, or buildings owned by someone who died without a will and passed the property down without a clear title to heirs. This is often repeated across generations resulting in tangled titles among multiple heirs. This situation disproportionately affects families with low wealth, particularly in Black, Brown, and rural communities. Heirs’ property is one of the leading causes of involuntary property (farms, homes, businesses) loss in the United States.
AFN Briefs
Why It’s Important
Grantmakers invest in housing because it remains one of the most powerful levers for building long-term financial security and passively increases wealth. Passing along to the next generations helps overcome the wealth gap disadvantage.
When families have access to affordable homeownership or quality rental options, their household balance sheet shifts and they gain:
Predictable costs for housing
Wealth to pass between generations
Decreased anxiety, stress, and depression
Consistency for school enrollment
Increased community stability
Increased saving and/or positive credit behavior
Grantmaking Strategies
Philanthropy working together with financial institutions can drive the necessary market reimagining to create just homeownership access and returns.
The best homeownership programs include a suite of services: safe, healthy, and affordable housing inventory, fair mortgage products, and wraparound support of education, credit building, down payment assistance, affordable loan products, and often a trusted financial coach.
Philanthropy can create inclusive pathways by:
- Expanding ownership through cooperatives and land trusts
- Providing significant down payment assistance
- Eliminating mortgage insurance requirements
- Ending appraisal bias (using broader geography of comparables)
- Ensuring equitable loan terms regardless of race
- Redesigning mortgage criteria to reflect variable income and rental history
- Supporting cooperative approaches to property maintenance
- Advocating for heirs’ property reform and funding services to secure clear title for occupying owners
- Preserving market-affordable units (e.g., small landlord housing)
- Reducing construction costs to enable starter homes
- Supporting local market innovations for affordable mortgages.
These efforts complement but remain distinct from broader equity-focused approaches such as baby bonds, guaranteed income, or reparations, which help alleviate the financial pressures that can cause families to lose equity or wealth.
Beyond Ownership: Rental Strategies
Where not every family—or every market—can support widespread affordable homeownership, funders and public officials must also prioritize healthy, affordable rental options that increase disposable income and support asset building, including:
- Renter equity models that substitute equity (wealth ownership) for rent increases
- Rent stabilization policies that keep units affordable
- Cost-saving investments for nonprofit and small landlords, passing savings on to tenants
AFN members champion both ownership and rental strategies to build an equitable housing market and will continue exploring new pathways to expand access and grow inclusive wealth.
““Investing in the spectrum of housing needs is critical and urgent. We must be bold, innovative, and unwavering in supporting rental stability for individuals and families and creating pathways to affordable homeownership. Our efforts must be rooted in the belief that each of us deserves a life of health, hope, and prosperity.”
Marisa Magallanez | Albuquerque Community Foundation
