Ownership of homes drops less for immigrants

While immigrants are still much less likely to own a home than people born in the United States, the study found that immigrants who do own homes have been less affected over the last few years as housing values declined, jobs vanished, and foreclosures surged.

The homeownership rate for immigrants in 2008 dropped slightly, to 52.9 percent from a high of 53.3 percent in 2006, according to the report by the Hispanic center, a project of the nonpartisan Pew Research Center in Washington. During that same time, the ownership rate for native-born Americans fell to 70 percent from 71.2 percent.

"As [immigrants] accumulate years of residence in the US they keep on buying," said Rakesh Kochhar, the center's associate director for research. "They are climbing that ladder, and that is elevating their homeownership rates."

The study also found that minorities in general have been most affected by the booms and busts of the housing market over the last 15 years. Between 1995 and 2008, homeownership rates rose faster among all minor ities than whites. But since the start of the housing decline in 2005, rates have fallen most deeply for two of the nation's largest minorities - blacks and native-born Latinos.

Blacks and Latinos also were far more likely than whites to buy homes with subprime loans, the study found. In 2007, 27.6 percent of homes purchased by Hispanics and 33.5 percent of those bought by blacks involved loans with higher interest rates - often obtained in the subprime mortgage market - compared with 10.5 percent of homes purchased by whites, the study said.

Also, while the homeownership gap between whites and minority ethnic groups has declined, there is still a significant disparity. As of last year, 74.9 percent of whites owned homes, compared with 59.1 percent of Asians, 48.9 percent of Hispanics, and 47.5 percent of blacks.

Jenifer McKim can be reached at jmckim@globe.com.