Homes in Black majority neighborhoods are undervalued by 23% on average (-$48,000) compared to similar homes in neighborhoods with few Black residents. Cumulatively, this undervaluation deprives homeowners in Black neighborhoods of approximately $156 billion in equity. The good news is that innovators across the United States are developing structural innovations that (re)design our markets for the public good. The Spotlight Innovators from the Valuing Homes in Black Communities Challenge were recently announced during an event hosted by Economic Architecture and the Brookings Institution.
Learn about trends that are impacting the realities of homeownership, how these innovators’ efforts are transforming their communities, and how these promising market- and policy-based innovations can fundamentally change the economic architecture of the housing market to make it more equitable.
Meet the Spotlight Innovators:
Ashon Nesbitt – Florida Housing Coalition – Tallahassee, Florida
Ashon Nesbitt’s Florida Housing Coalition is enhancing affordable housing by integrating climate-resilient construction and designs with the Community Land Trust (CLT) model and promoting “missing middle” housing, such as duplexes and triplexes. Through its CLT Certification Program, the coalition standardizes the operations of CLTs across Florida, boosting CLT credibility and lender appeal. This approach ensures long-term affordability and climate resilience in communities.
Cat Goughnour – Maryland Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD) – Lanham, Maryland
Cat Goughnour, Assistant Secretary of the Division of Just Communities at the Maryland Department of Housing and Community Development, is advancing the Just Communities Act to transform how public funds are allocated to neighborhoods historically affected by unjust and discriminatory policies. This initiative establishes criteria for identifying priority communities, including a legacy of racial segregation and disproportionate exposure to environmental hazards. Communities meeting these criteria can be recommended for targeted state investments to address historical inequities.
Doug Ryan – Grounded Solutions Network – Washington, DC
Grounded Solutions Network (GSN) works to remove systemic barriers to housing stability and wealth-building in low-income communities and communities of color. By advancing Community Land Trusts (CLTs) and shared-equity housing models, GSN promotes homeownership with lasting affordability. Through their national policy initiative, Doug Ryan and the GSN policy team advocate for equitable tax assessments for CLTs—influencing tax policy in states like California, Florida, and Texas—to create affordable, stable communities in which people can thrive.
Gabe Ewing del Rio – Homeownership Council of America – Santa Ana, California
Under Gabe Ewing del Rio’s leadership, Homeownership Council of America (HCA) is driving innovation for Black homebuyers nationally by addressing barriers related to down payments and closing costs. HCA’s Equity DPA (down payment assistance) uses a Special Purpose Credit Program, pools DPA funds, and enables lenders to deploy DPA alongside first mortgages in any market. By leveraging economies of scale, Equity DPA aims to reduce costs, increase efficiency, and direct more capital toward communities historically underserved.
John W. Haines – Community Investment Trust (CIT) – Portland, Oregon
The Community Investment Trust (CIT) model democratizes access to real estate investment for communities historically excluded from wealth-building. The CIT allows residents in select neighborhoods to invest $10-$100/month in local commercial real estate. In return, they receive competitive returns and an ownership stake in their community. Piloted in Portland, Oregon, the CIT is now expanding to other cities. Place-based nonprofit organizations, with support from the CIT Services team led by John Haines, are stewarding these projects. CIT combats displacement and promotes equity, local ownership, and community belonging.
Junia Howell – eruka – Cincinnati, Ohio
Junia Howell founded eruka to advance a more equitable and sustainable US housing market. To counter devaluation of homes in Black-majority neighborhoods, eruka is developing a new appraising approach. Unlike traditional approaches that focus on location, eruka’s mobile app, eppraiser, will use computer vision and advanced analytics to identify the remaining use value of physical structures for human habitation. This approach has potential to meaningfully reduce racial inequality and increase housing affordability.
Kyle Kamrooz – Bonus Homes – Phoenix, AZ
Bonus Homes, led by CEO Kyle Kamrooz, is working to reshape how Americans view their most significant asset—their home. By reimagining traditional home selling, Bonus offers a model that allows homeowners to unlock 100% of their current home equity while retaining up to 35% of future appreciation. This equity-sharing approach addresses issues like appraisal bias, aligning the interests of homeowners, renters, and communities. Bonus champions housing stability, wealth-building, and ensures that single-family homes can remain in the hands of families.
Marcus Martin – Homium – New York, NY
Marcus Martin is leading Homium and advancing homeownership through a shared-equity model that ties repayment to a portion of the home’s future appreciation. By offering interest-free, down-payment assistance through a second mortgage, Homium creates a pathway to purchasing a home with minimal upfront costs and no monthly payments. Its blockchain-enabled platform ensures transparency, efficiency, and opportunities for families locked out of traditional pathways to financing.
Tamara Knox – Frolic – Seattle, Washington
Tamara Knox and Josh Morrison are the innovators behind Frolic, a cooperative housing model transforming Seattle’s upzoned neighborhoods into thriving, multi-family communities. By converting single-family lots into multi-family co-ops, Frolic enables homeowners to stay on their land, build wealth, and create community through shared spaces. By designing projects that balance both familiar and novel elements — such as cooperative ownership structures and low down payments — Frolic is also paving the way for new lending products that cater to shared equity models.
Vernon Jay – EquityShare – Wilmington, North Carolina
At EquityShare, Vernon Jay is making affordable housing real estate investments more accessible to local residents. The platform uses blockchain technology to tokenize real estate, engineering fractional ownership. Community members can invest in affordable housing projects, sharing in rental income and property appreciation. By enabling residents, rather than external investors, to invest in and benefit from their neighborhoods’ growth, EquityShare fosters wealth-building and locally driven redevelopment.
“I’m an economist by trade. So let me start with some numbers,” said Cecilia Elena Rouse, President of The Brookings Institution. “In 2022, our very own Andre Perry and his team found that homes in Black-majority neighborhoods were are undervalued by an average of 23%. That’s about $48,000 less than similar homes in predominantly non Black areas. In total, this disparity strips about $156 billion in equity from homeowners in Black neighborhoods. These numbers underscore the scale of the challenge we’re facing, but there is reason for hope across the across the country. Innovators are developing market- and policy-based structural solutions to help restore value to homes in Black communities, and we’re here to celebrate their work.”
“That report inspired so many of us throughout the country,” added Andre M. Perry, Senior Fellow at Brookings Metro. “I repeat these numbers like it keeps my teeth white, that $156 billion is the equivalent of more than 4 million Black-owned businesses, based upon the average amount Black people use to start their firms. It would have paid for more than 8 million four-year degrees, replaced the pipes in Flint, Michigan 3,000 times over, covered nearly all of Hurricane Katrina. They say that necessity is the mother of invention. The people here today represent the serious response to a demand for addressing the needs of our community. In addition to the numbers, we also spotlight that when you improve the wealth and wellbeing of one group, you improve the wealth and wellbeing of others. This is about uplifting our communities.”
“The Valuing Homes in Black Communities initiative has been a long-term, multi-year partnership between Economic Architecture and Brookings,” said Stuart Yasgur, Founder and Principal of Economic Architecture. “We all need examples and opportunities where we can both defend the advances that we’ve already achieved, and continue to progress and address problems at their structural level. In each of these innovations, there’s a kernel of a structural innovation that really values homes. Collectively these innovators extend an invitation to each of us to say, how can we contribute? How can we participate? How can we be part of fostering this new generation of structural innovations that we really need?”