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.

In 2018-22, homeownership rates in Westchester County were highest among White and Asian residents, at 74% and 69%, respectively, followed by African American residents at 38%, and Hispanic residents at 39%. The racial/ethnic disparity was similar at the national level; however, rates of homeownership among Hispanics and African Americans in Westchester were 11 and 5 percentage points lower, respectively, than the nation.

Westchester's rates of homeownership were higher than the state rates for all groups, particularly among Asians in Westchester, whose rates of homeownership are 18 percentage points above the statewide rate. Since 2008-12, rates of homeownership in Westchester have increased for all groups. The share of Hispanic homeowners increased the most (8%), followed by Asians (6%), and African Americans (3%) and Whites (2%).

Among comparison counties, Westchester had the lowest homeownership rates for Asian, African American, and Hispanic residents. Its rate among Whites was on par with Rockland and 11 and 12 percentage points lower than Nassau and Putnam, respectively. Most of the municipalities in the county did not have large enough populations of residents in each racial or ethnic group for reliable estimates, except for Yonkers and Greenburgh. Both had similar racial/ethnic disparities in homeownership to the county, but rates of homeownership were lower among all groups in Yonkers and higher among all groups in Greenburgh, compared to the county.

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 can. 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 multi-year 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.