Women’s Impact in Homeownership & Poverty

Intense overview of how women’s homeownership is more than a home purchase. From our women buyers, community homeownership programs and providers of community outreach, join in on the conversation!

Homeownership holds incredible power to change women’s lives. The independence and economic foothold from buying a home can mean the difference leading to a life some women only dream of.

Let’s turn dreamers into believers and renters into homeowners!

What challenges and unique experiences do women encounter and how can we become an expert to better serve this emerging market?

Women’s poverty is a pervasive problem hindering women from creating better lives and purchasing homes. According to the U.S. Census Bureau:

  • Women currently endure a 25 percent gender wage gap
  • In the U.S., 29 percent of families headed by women with no husband present live below the poverty level
    • Of these families, 39.2 percent have children below 18 years of age
    • Of families, 43.9 percent have children below 5 years of age

Poverty prevents women from reaching milestones such as living independently and owning homes. The economic challenge of living in financially underprivileged states has profoundly adverse effects on women’s families and their upward mobility.

In July 2017, the National Association of Women in Real Estate Business (NAWRB), a leading voice for women in the housing ecosystem, will release the first installment of the NAWRB Women in the Housing Ecosystem Report.

This report raises awareness of women entrepreneurs’ successes and obstacles, and analyzes the ramifications of workplace gender imbalances on women’s homeownership.

To further examine the connection between poverty and women’s lack of homeownership, illustrating the pervasive manner in which these two factors intertwine to help prevent women’s progress, the report shines a light on the power of homeownership to cement one’s economic foundation and professional success.

KCCD/FACE 16th Annual Homeownership Fair, July 8, 2017

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The Korean Churches for Community Development (KCCD), soon to be Faith and Community Empowerment (FACE), 16th Annual Homeownership Fair will take place on Saturday, July 8, 2017. KCCD is excited to continue in educating and bringing together communities to meet with mortgage lenders, industry experts, and providing opportunities to purchase a home.

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Women’s Homeownership Series: Hope

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Hope and her husband, with their two daughters, moved into a beautiful 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom home in Boulder, Colorado two-and-a-half years ago. Previously living in a smaller 2 bedroom condominium a few miles away, the family enjoyed the comfort and convenience of a larger space. Their daughters, Rose and Isabelle, were happy to have their own private rooms and a backyard to practice soccer in after school.

Since the couple divorced a few months ago, Hope has taken full responsibility of the $2,500 rent. When she is not busy managing a popular clothing department store, she enjoys spending time with her daughters and painting. She aspires to feature her eclectic paintings in a gallery at the thriving art district in North Boulder, a place she frequents with friends.

Hope has fortified her career with over 20 years of hard work and dedication. Despite not having a college degree, her weekly earnings of $762 exceed that of the average female worker with only a high school diploma. She, however, earns less than the median weekly income of women ages 25 and older with a bachelor’s degree or higher.

Hope’s ex-husband provides $1,200 of monthly child support to help with expenses. Nevertheless, both her income and child support are not enough to continue living at the house with adequate savings for an emergency fund or retirement plan. More than 50 percent of her $3,050 monthly paycheck goes to rent, not including utilities.

Common advice from financial planners is that, at most, a person should spend 30 percent of their income on housing expenses. Hope is already experiencing the burden of not having leftover income to put in savings. With additional living expenses, she only has $200 left every month for unexpected costs and the occasional take-out meal with her daughters.
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The Future of Small Businesses

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With limited employees, capital and resources, small businesses are hit the hardest by rigorous regulations, and the expense of compliance often poses sustainable growth roadblocks for the entrepreneurs who need it the most. The following months could prove especially pivotal for small business owners, as the possibility of new legislation and regulations grows.

Access to Credit

A vital decision on the horizon is the possible repeal of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, which has constrained some mall businesses and homebuyers seeking access to credit. As data from the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis shows, in the six years prior to Dodd-Frank, small bank lending surpassed large bank lending by over 150 percent. In the six years after the bill’s passage, small bank lending sits nearly 80 percent below lending from large banks.

The bill’s stringent credit qualifications have arguably limited Americans in their personal and professional lives, increasing the difficulty to access business capital and home loans. The possible repeal of Dodd-Frank could mean easier access to credit for millions of businesses, increased homebuyers and a stimulated economy.
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The Movers & the Shakedown

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America has long been crowned as the land of dreamers, the land of opportunity, and if you work hard enough and remain diligent, there is nothing you can’t achieve. The wealth is in land and labor, and it’s that which accumulates, you can control, and pass on to the next generation. Black people are not very active in the home buying market today and the likelihood of changing this outlook is bleak. As the Pew Research Center reports, in 1994, 42.3 percent of black households owned their homes; in 2016, their homeownership rate is 41.3 percent. The dream of homeownership is fleeting for black households stemming from being a historically disadvantaged group. As we look at the effects of the foreclosure and unemployment crisis resulting from the Great Recession, an optimistic outlook is hard to find.

In examining the contributing factors and consequences of the 2007-2008 foreclosure crisis, the ramifications of housing discrimination against black householders, then and now, remain virtually unchanged. With the influx of stable employment and easily accessible mortgages, many Blacks were able to participate in the American dream of homeownership. But with the ease and accessibility of ownership came subprime loans, manipulated interest rates and overpayment of homes. It was a ticking time bomb.

Across the nation, black homeowners were disproportionately affected by the foreclosure crisis, with more than 240,000 of them losing their homes. In a 2014 article investigating the foreclosure crisis, Nathalie Baptiste presents staggering facts regarding the deterioration of black wealth. She states that the foreclosures affected blacks of all income brackets, and high-earning blacks were 80 percent more likely to lose their homes than their white counterparts.
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Raising Your Bottom Line: Capitalizing On Your Business Classification-Women-Owned

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In today’s competitive business arena, a minute detail or decision can mean the difference between long-term success and immediate failure. In the real estate industry, where networking and connections play such a significant role in business performance, what you and your business connote is particularly vital.

As a professional in this highly competitive marketplace, not utilizing the business classifications at your disposal is an oversight. A strategy as old as the industry itself is tailoring to your community. You must play to your strengths, and increasing your business’s appeal to a particular market including potential homebuyers is essential. For women business owners, the utilization of women-owned business classification is vital.

According to 2014 Census Bureau data, there are currently 18,057,000 female homeowners in the United States. As women make advancements in their careers and their wages grow in parity to those of men, women’s homeownership will continue to grow. With this extended buying power, we are seeing the emergence of more women homeowners and a specialized niche for real estate professionals. This growing market is evidenced in the fact that 10 million American women homeowners live alone.
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Happy National Homeownership Month this June!

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June is National Homeownership Month, dedicated to recognizing the benefits of homeownership to our families, communities and country. A popular way to build wealth, homeownership offers the opportunity to create a better life and prosper, paving the path for future generations to succeed and also achieve the American Dream. Unfortunately, homeownership in America remains a struggle and enigma.

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New Findings on Wealth and Poverty in the U.S.

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The U.S. Census Bureau has released the 2013 Wealth and Asset Ownership Detailed Tables highlighting the household net worth of American households. The tables “highlight annual household net worth estimates at the national level and are broken down by selected characteristics, such as race, household structure and poverty status.”

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