COMMENTARY

Securing the Future: Intergenerational Mobility and Homeownership Among AANHPIs

By Linna Zhu, Bryson Berry, and Daniel Pang
March 30, 2026

Homeownership plays a central role in wealth building in the United States, yet we know far less about how wealth evolves after homeownership—particularly for Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander (AANHPI) households. 

In a recent report, Urban Institute researchers provide the first comprehensive, life-cycle trajectory analysis of wealth building anchored in homeownership for AANHPI households over the past two decades. By tracing how wealth evolves across the life cycle—from accumulation and use to preservation and transfer—this report reveals barriers that persist well beyond market entry. For example, our findings show that access to housing equity among AANHPIs is uneven.

These insights and findings matter for policymakers, financial institutions, and community organizations seeking to design housing, credit, and wealth-building policies that promote long-term economic security and intergenerational mobility, not only for AANHPI households but for households across the United States.

Homeownership anchors wealth accumulation, but barriers persist at market entry

AANHPI homeowners experienced sustained home equity growth over time, regardless of market entry period. Median home equity rises from approximately $180,000 within the first five years after purchase to more than $340,000 by years 6 through 10 and continues to grow with longer tenure. Differences in the timing of market entry affect the magnitude of home equity accumulation, but the trajectories remain the same, reflecting the role of homeownership as a durable wealth-building mechanism for AANHPI households.

But AANHPI households continue to face higher mortgage denial rates, language barriers, and limited use of public homeownership assistance programs. Notably, AANHPIs are the only major racial group in which most individuals, roughly 66 percent, are foreign-born, with the immigrant share of working-age adults higher than 76 percent. This may increase difficulties navigating documentation requirements and the likelihood of incomplete applications and reduce access to mortgage credit. These issues contribute to constraining access to this foundational wealth-building stage.

In this way, home equity serves not only as a store of wealth but as a flexible financial resource that enables households to respond to evolving family responsibilities and long-term planning needs.

Housing wealth supports major financial needs, but access to equity is uneven

As home equity accumulates, households tend to leverage housing wealth to meet education, family support, and health care needs. AANHPI households that extract home equity tend to have higher incomes but lower liquid asset buffers, and extraction years are associated with sharply higher spending—family support expenditures more than double and education expenditures nearly triple relative to nonextraction years. Overall life-cycle patterns suggest that home equity extraction among AANHPI households is closely tied to intergenerational investments rather than short-term consumption. In this way, home equity serves not only as a store of wealth but as a flexible financial resource that enables households to respond to evolving family responsibilities and long-term planning needs.

At the same time, disparities in refinance and cash-out lending limit many homeowners’ ability to equitably access housing wealth, particularly during mid- and late-life stages. Evidence shows that Asian borrowers face persistent denial rate gaps in refinance markets. When households face constraints in refinancing or home equity borrowing, they may be forced to rely on high-cost credit, draw down limited liquid assets, or delay critical investments in family support. As a result, these constraints undermine not only wealth utilization but the long-term sustainability and resilience of homeownership as a wealth-building pathway.

Nonhousing wealth increases over time but remains exposed to economic risk

Wealth building increasingly extends beyond housing, as nonhousing assets such as retirement accounts, financial assets, and business equity grow in importance, particularly in later life. Among AANHPI homeowners with more than 20 years of tenure, median nonhousing wealth exceeds $500,000. Notably, AANHPI households are the only group for which housing concentration declines after age 65, reflecting continued growth of nonhousing wealth in later life.

AANHPI populations comprise roughly 6 percent of the population, but Asian-owned businesses account for approximately 11 percent of all US employer firms and about 8 percent of nonemployer firms. However, AANHPI business equity is often exposed to economic shocks and constrained by reliance on limited credit channels. Asian-owned businesses are disproportionately concentrated in cyclically sensitive industries, such as accommodation, food services, and retail. These dynamics can undermine the stability of business equity as a wealth-building asset and limit households’ ability to preserve and transfer wealth.

Wealth transfer is central to intergenerational mobility, yet realization gaps are largest for AANHPI households.

Nearly half of Asian homeowners ages 65 and older expect to leave an inheritance—a higher share than among Black, Hispanic, or white homeowners—highlighting the multigenerational nature of wealth building. In addition, Asian first-time homebuyers are more likely than other groups to report using a gift or loan from family members to purchase their first home. Yet, only about 10 percent of Asian households report having received an inheritance, the largest gap between intention and realization across major racial and ethnic groups. Furthermore, Asian first-time homebuyers may not have as much access to other financial tools to purchase their first home. These gaps point to challenges in succession planning, estate management, and asset preservation that limit the intergenerational impact of accumulated wealth.

Policy Considerations

These findings point to policy implications that span the full trajectory of homeownership and wealth building. Policymakers must focus on:

  • Expanding equitable access to homeownership: Federal and state housing agencies, regulators, and lenders can reduce barriers at market entry by supporting cash flow–based underwriting, improving language access throughout the mortgage process, strengthening housing counseling, and expanding outreach to down payment assistance and special purpose credit programs that remain underutilized in AANHPI communities.
  • Enabling safe and sustainable use of housing wealth over the life cycle: Regulators, lenders, and housing counselors can improve access to housing wealth by monitoring disparities in home equity extractions, expanding counseling beyond the point of purchase, and strengthening consumer protections—particularly for multilingual and aging homeowners navigating complex products
  • Strengthening nonhousing wealth preservation and small-business resilience: Small-business agencies, financial institutions, and mission-driven lenders can reduce household vulnerability by promoting diversified financing options, improving language access in small-business finance, integrating housing and business policy conversations, and developing tools that help households manage economic shocks without destabilizing housing wealth.
  • Facilitating effective wealth transfer and intergenerational mobility: State and local governments, legal systems, and service providers can support intergenerational wealth transfer by expanding access to affordable estate and succession planning services, increasing multilingual legal assistance, addressing heirs’ property risks, and embedding planning support within existing housing, aging, and wealth-building programs.
  • Improve data infrastructure to support evidence-based policy: Federal agencies and data providers can strengthen policy design by improving identification of AANHPI populations across housing, credit, and wealth datasets and supporting oversampling in longitudinal surveys—particularly for Native Hawaiian, Pacific Islander, and southeast Asian communities whose experiences may diverge from aggregate patterns.

Overall, this research underscores the need for a holistic, life-cycle approach to wealth building—one that spans wealth accumulation, preservation and transfer. Responsibility for advancing this agenda falls on federal, state, and local governments; financial institutions and intermediaries; and community-based organizations, each of which plays a role at different stages of the wealth-building process. For AANHPI households in particular, such an approach is critical to sustaining upward mobility across generations, as wealth gains often depend not only on access to homeownership but also on the ability to retain housing stability, support multigenerational living arrangements, and transfer resources over time. Without coordinated support across these stages, early gains in homeownership may not translate into lasting intergenerational economic security.

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Linna Zhu is a senior research associate at the Urban Institute’s Housing Finance Policy Center, where her work focuses on housing, wealth building, aging, and the role of emerging technologies in expanding economic opportunity.