November 23, 2025
The realtor expects to hit this milestone of 1,000 Black owners by subsequent yr.
A Kansas Metropolis Realtor has targets of getting Black folks into homeownership.
Tenesia Brown, CEO of Keys Realty Group, is inching nearer and nearer to her 1,000-person marker. She desires to teach first-time consumers about how they’ll really attain this American dream.
“Why not?” she instructed KSHB. “We’ve an enormous hole within the quantity of people that develop into owners, and it’s simply because now we have an absence of training and don’t know the place we are able to discover the assets.”
Since beginning her enterprise, she has helped 887 new Black owners. Many come to her wanting to affix the trigger, particularly as renting turns into extra unfeasible.
Shay Moore additionally joined the trigger, dismantling the limitations that stop Black folks from proudly owning houses. The radio station host determined to tackle the initiative after her personal bouts of dwelling in a number of cities with no place to name her personal.
“I’ve lived in six totally different states and labored at 11 radio stations, so up till this level, I by no means even considered buying a house,” Moore mentioned.
Moore observed, nonetheless, how the present market has made renting properties unaffordable and undesirable.
“Once I first bought right here, I had a three-bedroom townhome in Lee’s Summit, and it was inexpensive, she mentioned. “Not anymore. Issues have gotten actually uncontrolled.”
Now, as she wishes to enterprise into homeownership, she desires to uplift others to take action as nicely.
“One in all my issues was the rates of interest at one level and the worth level,” she mentioned. ‘What I discovered in Kansas Metropolis is you may nonetheless get an inexpensive house.”
Like Moore and different purchasers, Brown desires to encourage drained renters to voyage past rental properties to safe their very own place. Nevertheless, she does so amid a tricky local weather scarred by excessive rates of interest and a rocky job market.
In accordance with the Nationwide Affiliation of ‘Realtors’ 2025 “Snapshot of Race and Residence Shopping for in America,” whereas Black homeownership stays comparatively regular, it nonetheless lags behind white People. The Black homeownership charge lies at 43.9%, a drop from 44.7% of final yr, with white homeownership charges standing at round 74%.
With homeownership usually taking a dip, reaching a file low of 21%, Moore stays dedicated to breaking the tides even amid new obstacles. Her effort begins by reaching aspiring owners the place they’re at financially, so when the chance does come up, they’ll keep of their new property.
“It’s a must to begin the place you may afford,” added Brown. “You’ll be able to’t be home wealthy and pocket poor.”
She expects to achieve her purpose by 2026, contributing together with her small however mighty wave of Black owners.
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