Our most recent snapshot took a look at homeownership rates across the metro Atlanta region by race/ethnicity. Today, we dive deeper into homeownership rates at the census tract level, among Black residents only, using American Community Survey (ACS) 2017-2021 5-year data.
One particular slide in the recent snapshot mapped homeownership rates for Black residents in Census tracts that had more than 50% Black population. Today, we’re mapping all metro Census tracts, looking at (below) both Black homeownership rates and Black population using an interactive 3D rendering of the data. As you’ll see below, the darker shade of green indicates higher homeownership rates among Black residents, while “taller” (extruded) Census tracts represent larger Black populations. Scroll over the map to identify values (rates and numbers) for individual census tracts! The “clear” census tracts, with no “pop-up” values, have no relevant population or homeownership data.
(Shift + click on the map above to change the angle and rotation)
If we only considered homeownership rates (represented by the gradations of green shading on the tracts), we would see a lot of dark green in Forsyth and Cherokee Counties. But when we consider we population (or the “z-axis” –the extrusion–on the map above), we quickly see that these Census tracts to the north of our region contain relatively low Black populations. The “taller” and darker green-shaded Census tracts are where there are large numbers of Black residents and also a high percentage of whom own their homes.
We see that DeKalb and Fulton Counties stand out as having Census tracts featuring both large Black populations and high homeownership rates. In particular, Census tract 13089023315 (in southern DeKalb County) features among the highest combination of both: 6,429 Black residents, with a 88.0% Black homeownership rate. Another Census tract that stands out is in south Fulton County, and identified as 13121010311. This Census tract is home to 6,052 Black residents with a 93.1% Black homeownership rate.
Cobb County presents interesting areas of contrast. The northwest and northeast portions of Cobb have relatively high Black homeownership rates but low overall Black populations. There is darker green shading in the northern portions of the county to the lighter shading in the south. Yet we see (with “taller” extrusions) that these South Cobb Census tracts feature much larger Black populations. Explanations could include lower median incomes in these southern Census tracts, fewer affordable housing units available for purchase, or any number of barriers to homeownership so typically faced by Black residents.