HOME: Oakland Equity Indicators | Housing | Affordability 

The affordable housing crisis affects communities around the country, and Oakland is no exception. While many Oaklanders struggle to afford their homes, racial and ethnic minorities face particular challenges in access to affordable housing. The three Indicators in this Topic measure access to stable housing through homeownership, access to financial resources in the form of home loans, and access to rental housing that does not cost more than 30% of household income. 

The Affordability Topic received the highest score in the Housing Theme (49.0), and the three Indicator scores fell relatively close to this average. The loan denial Indicator received the lowest score of the three, with a score of 40, meaning that African American Oaklanders were twice as likely as White Oaklanders to have their home loan applications denied. Homeownership and rent cost burden received very similar scores of 53 and 54, respectively.

Among White householders, 43.6% did not own their homes, meaning that over half of White householders were homeowners. Asian householders were also slightly more likely to own their homes than not (48.1% did not own their homes). Conversely, 69.0% of Latino householders did not own their homes, and almost one in four African American householders did not own their homes (74.1%). Citywide, just over half of householders did not own their homes (56.4%). African American householders were 1.70 times more likely to not own their homes than White householders.

We found that African American loan applicants were much more likely to have their applications denied by the financial institution (25.7%) compared to White applicants (12.1%). One in five Latino applicants had their loan applications denied (19.6%). The percent for Asian applicants (14.3%) was similar to the citywide percent (14.7%). The home loan denial rates for African Americans were 2.13 times higher than the rates for Whites.

Citywide, almost half of households were rent burdened, meaning they spent more than 30% of their annual income on rent. It was more common among African American and Latino households, with 58.4% and 52.7% respectively. It was slightly less common among Asian households (at 49.2%) while only one in three White households (34.9%) paid more than 30% of their annual income on rent. African American households were 1.67 times more likely to be rent burdened than White households.