by Nahlah Abdur-Rahman
November 23, 2025
The realtor expects to hit this milestone of 1,000 Black homeowners by next year.
A Kansas City Realtor has goals of getting Black people into homeownership.
Tenesia Brown, CEO of Keys Realty Group, is inching closer and closer to her 1,000-person marker. She wants to educate first-time buyers about how they can actually reach this American dream.
“Why not?” she told KSHB. “We have a big gap in the number of people who become homeowners, and it’s just because we have a lack of education and don’t know where we can find the resources.”
Since starting her venture, she has helped 887 new Black homeowners. Many come to her wanting to join the cause, especially as renting becomes more unfeasible.
Shay Moore also joined the cause, dismantling the barriers that prevent Black people from owning homes. The radio station host decided to take on the initiative after her own bouts of living in multiple cities with no place to call her own.
“I’ve lived in six different states and worked at 11 radio stations, so up until this point, I never even thought about purchasing a home,” Moore said.
Moore noticed, however, how the current market has made renting properties unaffordable and undesirable.
“When I first got here, I had a three-bedroom townhome in Lee’s Summit, and it was affordable, she said. “Not anymore. Things have gotten really out of control.”
Now, as she desires to venture into homeownership, she wants to uplift others to do so as well.
“One of my concerns was the interest rates at one point and the price point,” she said. ‘What I found in Kansas City is you can still get an affordable home.”
Like Moore and other clients, Brown wants to inspire tired renters to voyage beyond rental properties to secure their own place. However, she does so amid a tough climate scarred by high interest rates and a rocky job market.
According to the National Association of ‘Realtors’ 2025 “Snapshot of Race and Home Buying in America,” while Black homeownership remains relatively steady, it still lags behind white Americans. The Black homeownership rate lies at 43.9%, a drop from 44.7% of last year, with white homeownership rates standing at around 74%.
With homeownership in general taking a dip, reaching a record low of 21%, Moore remains committed to breaking the tides even amid new obstacles. Her effort starts by reaching aspiring homeowners where they are at financially, so when the opportunity does arise, they can stay in their new property.
“You have to start where you can afford,” added Brown. “You can’t be house rich and pocket poor.”
She expects to reach her goal by 2026, contributing with her small but mighty wave of Black homeowners.
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