“Numbers matter, data matters, and it drives decisions,” said Bank of America neighborhood lending executive Glenda Gabriel, a, during a policy summit recently held at the National Press Club. Gabriel said the aggregated data would allow Bank of America to be “more intentional” with its business strategies and allow it to better serve the Asian American community.

The improved data will come at a crucial time for the Asian American community. Citing research, US Rep. Mike Honda, D-California, said that 20% of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders reported being discriminated against during a housing search.

“The new data shared by the Census Bureau will help inform my colleagues and other policymakers, so we can better direct funding to ensure the AAPI community can buy their own homes and live the American Dream,” said Honda, who helped the group with the “No Other” campaign.

Lawrence Yun, chief economist of the National Association of Realtors, said the data will shed light on homeownership rates in the Midwest, where houses are generally more affordable but Asian Americans make up a tiny portion of the population.

“This is where the growth is occurring. Large growth is occurring in Kansas, Nebraska, the Dakotas,” Yun said. The data, he said, could help identify legal obstacles or any passive discrimination against Asian Americans in those housing markets.

“We need to look at the obstacles and knock down those obstacles,” he said, to ensure that Asian Americans enjoy equal access to homeownership.

The US Census Bureau's change was a cause for celebration, but advocates for the Asian American population stressed that similar disaggregation of data is needed in education and the healthcare sector. That data can reveal “systemic problems in discrimination,” said Lorna Randlett, a member of the White House Initiative on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders.

“We need to understand who our people are and where they live so that they can be counted and get services. There doesn't seem to be a problem with the federal government being able to find us and be able to have us be able to pay taxes,” Randlett said. “We also think that it should not be a problem for them to be able to provide information about voting and healthcare and other things that we may have access to in our language.”

WASHINGTON, DC—The Asian Real Estate Association of America braced itself for a slow slog through the Washington bureaucracy when it began its push to create a distinct racial category for Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders on the US Census Bureau's quarterly homeownership reports.

But the real estate association was in for a pleasant surprise. This week, within months of starting an advocacy campaign that was expected to take as long as a few years, the real estate association announced that Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders will have their own racial category on the closely-followed homeownership reports beginning July 1.

For Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, the change carries both symbolic and practical significance. Previously, homeownership data specific to Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders were only reported annually. On the quarterly reports, which are widely reported in the media along with academic and policy documents, Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders were aggregated under the category of “other” ethnic groups, inspiring the name of AREAA's advocacy campaign: “No Other.”

But as Asian Americans continue to make up the fastest-growing racial group in the United States, the reports are also expected to educate policies for promoting homeownership within the Asian American and Pacific Islander community.

“Numbers matter, data matters, and it drives decisions,” said Bank of America neighborhood lending executive Glenda Gabriel, a, during a policy summit recently held at the National Press Club. Gabriel said the aggregated data would allow Bank of America to be “more intentional” with its business strategies and allow it to better serve the Asian American community.

The improved data will come at a crucial time for the Asian American community. Citing research, US Rep. Mike Honda, D-California, said that 20% of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders reported being discriminated against during a housing search.

“The new data shared by the Census Bureau will help inform my colleagues and other policymakers, so we can better direct funding to ensure the AAPI community can buy their own homes and live the American Dream,” said Honda, who helped the group with the “No Other” campaign.

Lawrence Yun, chief economist of the National Association of Realtors, said the data will shed light on homeownership rates in the Midwest, where houses are generally more affordable but Asian Americans make up a tiny portion of the population.

“This is where the growth is occurring. Large growth is occurring in Kansas, Nebraska, the Dakotas,” Yun said. The data, he said, could help identify legal obstacles or any passive discrimination against Asian Americans in those housing markets.

“We need to look at the obstacles and knock down those obstacles,” he said, to ensure that Asian Americans enjoy equal access to homeownership.

The US Census Bureau's change was a cause for celebration, but advocates for the Asian American population stressed that similar disaggregation of data is needed in education and the healthcare sector. That data can reveal “systemic problems in discrimination,” said Lorna Randlett, a member of the White House Initiative on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders.

“We need to understand who our people are and where they live so that they can be counted and get services. There doesn't seem to be a problem with the federal government being able to find us and be able to have us be able to pay taxes,” Randlett said. “We also think that it should not be a problem for them to be able to provide information about voting and healthcare and other things that we may have access to in our language.”