Black Houston's Home Buying Squeeze, By the Numbers

The listing price is no longer the number that decides a deal in Houston. Insurance is.

Buyers we interviewed reported homeowners premiums that doubled quotes and killed financing after appraisal. In flood-adjacent neighborhoods, the premium can exceed the difference between renting and owning.

The second squeeze is appraisal. Historically Black neighborhoods still appraise below comparable housing stock elsewhere in the city, which limits both purchase financing and refinancing.

There are workable paths: down payment assistance programs that go under-subscribed every year, credit unions with local underwriting, and community land trusts that are slowly adding inventory. None of them scale fast enough on their own.