Better Serving Black Homebuyers

Explore

Heard & Learned

This page includes the tools and visualizations we used to gain insights and create a tri-sector solution concept to help prepare homebuyers at scale:

Impact Journey: Shows the buyer’s experience (including challenges and bottlenecks) through the process of preparing to buy a home

Spotlight Map: A summary of themes that emerged from spotlight interviews and research

Systems Map: Macro-level view of the factors that influence outcomes for homebuyers

⁠

Tri-Sector Approach to Better Prepare Homebuyers⁠

⁠

Concept in Action⁠

⁠

About NewImpact⁠

⁠

Explore the Impact Journey

The Impact Journey visualizes the experience of a low- to moderate-income household as they prepare to buy a home. This micro-level visual helps surface obstacles, pain points, successes, gaps, and opportunities.

⁠

What is an Impact Journey?

⁠

Key points revealed in this impact journey:

Earlier interventions to help homebuyers work best—before the buyer applies for a mortgage loan. Getting denied for a loan can be a traumatic experience that causes many buyers to give up on the dream of owning a home.

Referrals throughout the home buying process would help prevent buyer loss or drop out. This is happening organically and informally right now—and so not all homebuyers going through the process can benefit from the added support and connections.

The lack of coordination among the ecosystem (visualized in the golden shapes in the impact journey) influences nearly all the key bottlenecks in the buyer’s journey.

Impact Journey of a Low- to Moderate-Income Homebuyer

⁠

Download

⁠

view an online interactive version⁠

⁠

Explore the Spotlight Map

The Spotlight Map below reflects what we learned from four town hall sessions with housing experts and service providers. These sessions included 13 private sector companies, 11 social sector organizations, and 2 public sector offices. The information is organized around themes that emerged in the interviews.

⁠

What is a Spotlight Map?

⁠

What is a Spotlight Interview?

⁠

Spotlight Map of Homebuyer Access

Key themes highlighted in this Spotlight Map:

There are many qualified and trusted organizations that provide critical pre-purchase counseling for low- to moderate-income homebuyers. But they tend to be underfunded and have a difficult time scaling their services to serve more buyers.

Among the many players in the space, there is a need to refer buyers between organizations. For example, a lender might need to connect a buyer with a counseling provider, who might bring in a specialist in recovering from identity theft. But organizations don’t have a way to do these handoffs currently, and so many buyers are left to navigate a complex and intimidating process without trusted advice.

Buyers can be denied for a mortgage loan if they do not meet a lender’s financial requirements. Organizations want to prepare buyers in advance of applying for a mortgage. But when these denials happen, the buyer is not often offered help or resources. As a result, some can get lost and lose hope in buying a home.

⁠

Download

⁠

(If the embed below does not work, click the link to the left 👈)

⁠

Loading…⁠

⁠

Explore the Systems Map

The system map below illustrates high-level drivers and dynamics that influence the a household’s ability to buy a home.

⁠

What is a Systems Map?

⁠

Key points revealed in this systems map:

Pre-purchase counseling is a key intervention point to help buyers improve the three key financial factors they need to buy a home: credit score, verifiable income, and savings.

From a high level view, the homebuying ecosystem works as a series of funnels and gateways, to convert people who are interested in buying, into loan applicants, into successful homebuyers. Buyers can get discouraged and drop out at many points along the process. The key is offering services and trusted advice to help them through moments that can feel confusing or dispiriting.

Homeownership is a virtuous cycle that builds generational wealth. As one generation buys homes and builds wealth, that strengthens the financial wellbeing of the next generation, who is then better positioned to buy a home themselves. And the cycle continues.

Systems Map of Drivers of Homebuyer Outcomes

⁠

Download

⁠

view an online interactive version⁠

⁠

If you or your organization is interested in helping pilot one of our programs in your community, please

contact us⁠

Want to print your doc?
This is not the way.

Try clicking the ⋯ next to your doc name or using a keyboard shortcut (

CtrlP

) instead.