Hispanics are increasingly making up what’s considered the typical American home buyer, Curbed.com reports. Latinos are expected to make up 52 percent of new home buyers between 2010 and 2030, largely driven by the country’s 14.6 million Latino millennials.
Since 2000, the number of Hispanic households has jumped by 6.7 million, which comprises 42.5 percent of the country’s overall household growth. Hispanics’ “fervent desire to own a home” has fueled homebuying by Latinos across the country, demographers note.
“The fact is the majority of Latinos want to be home owners and will make up half of all new home buyers in the next 20 years,” Scott Astrada, director of federal advocacy at the
Center for Responsible Lending, told NBC. “They have a central place in the housing market and finance system.”
Harvard University Joint Center for Housing Studies’ “
State of the Nation's Housing" study predicts minorities overall will drive three-quarters of the gains in U.S. households. Latinos will likely account for one-third of those increases alone.
Hispanics currently make up 17 percent of the U.S. population. Hispanics are expected to make up the largest segment of the Texas population by 2020 and comprise a prime source of population growth in California too.
“With credit remaining tight and limited housing inventory in several markets, these numbers are extremely encouraging and a testament to the economic resilience of the Hispanic community,” says Joseph Nery, 2016 president of the National Association of Hispanic Real Estate Professionals.
Real estate analysts say they view this market demographic as one of the major growth engines for the American housing and real estate industries.
But there are plenty of challenges that could jeopardize Hispanics making a larger imprint on the real estate industry. The Great Recession had a large impact on their savings, wiping out an estimated two-thirds of Latino wealth. NAHREP urges that this population would benefit from expanding access to affordable lending products with low down payment requirements. NAHREP cites stats that show Hispanics were denied loans at a rate of 17.3 percent, which is 9 percentage points higher than the denial rate for non-Hispanic whites. Also, NAHREP warns that deportations and immigration policies could have an impact on the Hispanic housing market.
A 2016 study linked deportations to increased foreclosure rates among Hispanic households.
Source: “Booming Hispanic Homeownership Helping Fuel U.S. Housing Market,” Curbed.com (Sept. 5, 2017)
