Blacks, Asian and Pacific Islanders, and Hispanics who immigrate to the United States and become citizens are more likely to own homes than members of the same ethnic groups born in this country. The U.S. Census Bureau released this new analysis of population data October 7.

Blacks who have immigrated to the United States have a 51 percent rate of homeownership, according to the Census Bureau, compared with 49 percent of U.S.-born blacks who own their own homes. The discrepancy is greater among Asian Pacific Islanders: 70 percent of the new citizens own homes, while only 57 percent of native born Asian-Americans own homes. Among Hispanics, 63 percent of the naturalized citizens own homes, compared with 54 percent of the U.S.-born Hispanics.

The report -- Moving to America, Moving to Homeownership -- is available online in PDF format.

The following is the text of a press release:

October 7, 2003

Some Foreign-Born Groups More Likely to Own Homes Than People Born in U.S., Census Bureau Reports

Blacks, Asians and Pacific islanders, and Hispanics who are naturalized citizens had higher homeownership rates than their U.S.-born race and ethnic counterparts, according to a new report from the U.S. Census Bureau.

The report, Moving to America -- Moving to Homeownership: 1994-2002,[PDF] shows that a slightly higher proportion (51 percent) of black, naturalized-citizen householders owned their homes, compared with native-born counterparts (49 percent). The difference is much higher for Asians and Pacific islanders: a 70 percent rate for naturalized citizens and 57 percent for Asians and Pacific islanders born in the United States. The 63 percent homeownership rate for naturalized citizens who are Hispanic (and may be of any race) was also much higher than the 54 percent rate for U.S.-born Hispanics. (See attached chart.)

At the same time, the homeownership rate for non-Hispanic white householders born in the United States (75 percent) was only slightly higher than the rate for non-Hispanic white, naturalized citizens (74 percent).

Overall, the 2002 homeownership rates for natives (70 percent), naturalized citizens (68 percent) and noncitizens (35 percent) were near their highest levels since data were first collected on this topic in 1994.

Other highlights:

-- Homeownership rates generally increased for both naturalized-citizen householders and noncitizens the longer they resided in the country. For naturalized-citizen householders, the homeownership rate was 77 percent for those who entered the country in 1974 or earlier and 60 percent for those who entered in 1975 or later.

-- Homeownership rates were highest for naturalized citizens from Europe (75 percent) and lowest for naturalized citizens from Latin America (62 percent). For naturalized citizens from Asia, the homeownership rate was 70 percent.

-- The 62 percent homeownership rate for naturalized Latin Americans in 2002 was nearly 6 percentage points higher than the rate in 1994.

-- The homeownership rate for all noncitizens (35 percent) was about 2 percentage points higher in 2002 than in 1994, while the 68 percent rate for all naturalized citizens was virtually unchanged over the eight-year period.

-- Northeast was the only region where the homeownership rate for naturalized-citizen householders (59 percent) was lower than that for natives (68 percent).

-- For nonfamily households with two or more persons, the homeownership rate for naturalized-citizen householders was 44 percent -- more than three times higher than the 14 percent for noncitizen householders.

The data are from the Current Population Survey/Housing Vacancy Survey. As in all surveys, the data are subject to sampling variability and other sources of error.