Minorities lose ground in the housing market

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The churning housing market of the last decade and a half has hit minorities harder than whites, according to research released Tuesday by the Pew Hispanic Center.

Homeownership rates rose faster among minorities from 1995 to 2005 than they did for whites, juiced in large part by subprime loans. Now that the bubble has burst, those same borrowers have been slammed hard. Blacks and American-born Latinos have been especially hurt by the fallout.

As of 2008, 74.9% of whites were homeowners, a much higher percentage than Asians (59.1%), Hispanics (48.9%) or blacks (47.5%). The overall homeownership rate dropped to 67.8% in 2008 from 69% in 2004. But just 47.5% of blacks owned their homes in 2008, compared with 49.4% in 2004. Ownership for U.S.-born Latinos reached an apex at 56.2% in 2005, but has since fallen to 53.6%.

According to the study, blacks and Latinos showed a higher likelihood than whites of obtaining higher priced subprime loans. Just 10.5% of home loans to whites in 2007 fit that category, compared with 27.6% of mortgages taken out by Hispanics and 33.5% of loans obtained by blacks.

That year, Hispanics and blacks also borrowed more than whites with similar incomes.

Immigrants, however, seem to be holding relatively steady. Researchers found that, while foreign-born residents were less likely than natives to own their homes -- 52.9% vs. 70% in 2008 -- they have taken lighter losses in the downturn.

The 52.9% homeownership figure for immigrants was down from a peak of 53.3% in 2006. For foreign-born Latinos, the high of 44.7% in 2007 did not change in 2008.

--Tiffany Hsu