by Nahlah Abdur-Rahman
November 23, 2025
The realtor expects to hit this milestone of 1,000 Black householders 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 needs to coach first-time patrons about how they will truly attain this American dream.
“Why not?” she informed KSHB. “We now have an enormous hole within the quantity of people that turn out to be householders, and it’s simply because we now have an absence of schooling and don’t know the place we will discover the assets.”
Since beginning her enterprise, she has helped 887 new Black householders. Many come to her wanting to hitch 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 properties. 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 completely different states and labored at 11 radio stations, so up till this level, I by no means even considered buying a house,” Moore stated.
Moore observed, nonetheless, how the present market has made renting properties unaffordable and undesirable.
“After I first bought right here, I had a three-bedroom townhome in Lee’s Summit, and it was inexpensive, she stated. “Not anymore. Issues have gotten actually uncontrolled.”
Now, as she needs to enterprise into homeownership, she needs to uplift others to take action as effectively.
“Certainly one of my issues was the rates of interest at one level and the worth level,” she stated. ‘What I discovered in Kansas Metropolis is you’ll be able to nonetheless get an inexpensive house.”
Like Moore and different shoppers, Brown needs to encourage drained renters to voyage past rental properties to safe their very own place. Nonetheless, she does so amid a tricky local weather scarred by excessive rates of interest and a rocky job market.
In line with the Nationwide Affiliation of ‘Realtors’ 2025 “Snapshot of Race and House Shopping for in America,” whereas Black homeownership stays comparatively regular, it nonetheless lags behind white Individuals. The Black homeownership fee lies at 43.9%, a drop from 44.7% of final yr, with white homeownership charges standing at round 74%.
With homeownership basically taking a dip, reaching a document low of 21%, Moore stays dedicated to breaking the tides even amid new obstacles. Her effort begins by reaching aspiring householders the place they’re at financially, so when the chance does come up, they will keep of their new property.
“You must begin the place you’ll be able to afford,” added Brown. “You possibly can’t be home wealthy and pocket poor.”
She expects to achieve her aim by 2026, contributing together with her small however mighty wave of Black householders.
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