A home is usually a person's or a family's highest-valued possession. Home values are also an indicator of the region's cost of living, relative wealth, and general prosperity.

In 2017-21, the median home values for African American homeowners ($374,700) and Hispanic homeowners ($458,000) in Norfolk County were lower compared to home values for white ($574,300) and Asian ($624,600) homeowners. Similar disparties existed in the state and nation, although the disparity between African American and white median home values was smaller at the state level compared to Norfolk.

Among comparison counties, Norfolk had the lowest median home value among African Americans and the second lowest among Hispanics behind Essex ($367,500).

Research has demonstrated that homes are appraised at lower values in communities of color, particularly Black communities, when compared with homes in white neighborhoods with similar house and neighborhood characteristics. Neighborhood racial composition was an explicit determining factor in the evaluation of US home values from the 1930s until the passage of the Fair Housing Act of 1968. Government-enforced a href="https://www.npr.org/2017/05/03/526655831/a-forgotten-history-of-how-the-u-s-government-segregated-america" target="_blank">redlining policies and other discriminatory housing practices resulted in higher valuations and investment in white communities and lower home valuations and disinvestment in communities of color. These policies have been a major contributor to present day racial disparities in median home values. Recent research suggests neighborhoods with higher shares of Black and Hispanic residents have experienced lower real housing appreciation, and homes in those neighborhoods are more likely than homes in white neighborhoods to be appraised at values below contract prices.

Data are presented in 2021 dollars. Multi-year data are from the Census Bureau's American Community Survey, Public Use Microdata Sample. The American Community Survey combines five years of responses to provide estimates for smaller geographic areas and increase the precision of its estimates. The survey provides data on characteristics of the population that used to be collected only during the decennial census.