Mortgage : Home Loans : Refinance : Home Equity Loans

By Terell Jones

As an African American, and a business man, I have been taking notice of what is going on in real estate these days. As a mortgage banker, I lend money to anyone capable of buying or refinancing a home. I also lend money for commercial real estate. Over the past 4 years I have noticed that the Hispanic divisions within banks and real estate companies have been very busy. The most reputable banks have newly created Hispanic divisions. Some of the biggest banks in the nation have relocated call centers to San Antonio, Texas to better serve the Hispanic community.

I mention these things specifically to my people. Black people, this is a wake up call. We need to buy more homes, start more businesses, and realize the American Dream. I stand in admiration of what Hispanics are doing in real estate today. Instead of hating on them for prospering, I appreciate them for setting the example. Hispanics should keep paving the way for the rest of the minority population.

Back in 1996 national news services announced that the Oakland School Board was seeking federal funding for a new language program, Ebonics. Before and since, Hispanics have been steadily growing in numbers. Teachers in that Oakland School District were frustrated because the ESL Program (English as a Second Language) was swallowing up all the federal funding for African American students in the region. It is no secret that Hispanics are the largest growing minority group in America today.

Hispanics are expected to make up 40% of first-time home buyers over the next 20 years, the Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies says. A study by the Toms Rivera Policy Institute at the University of Southern California projects that 2.2 million Hispanic households will buy homes between now and 2010. The Census Bureau reports that in 2004, the African-American home ownership rate reached 49.1 percent, up strongly from 42.3 percent 10 years ago. ‘’African-Americans lag behind others in homeownership to the point where about 40!
percent
of African-Americans are homeowners while 72 percent of their white counterparts own their own homes,'’ said Representative Gregory Meeks during conference at York College back in 2001. According to the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, only 4.7% African American households owned businesses, while 8.1% Hispanic households owned businesses. In addition, only 4.5% African American households own rental properties, while Hispanic households own 5.9%. Hispanics are buying 50% of all homes purchased nationwide over the next four years according to industry analysts.

Hispanics have been able to sway the banking guidelines across the board. Before you were only able to use dual incomes for loan qualification, today you can use triple and quadruple incomes. That means, your mother, brother, sister, and cousin can help you qualify. Additionally, Hispanic people, culturally, do not trust banks, so they usually have mattress money. Banks now accept these forms of cash reserves, but before you would need 2 to 3 months bank statements. Now you only need one month. Because of supply and demand, banks are starting to create products that allow green cards, tax ID numbers, and foreign nationals to buy a home. You do not have to be a citizen, and you can buy a house.

Now let

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This entry was posted on Friday, September 22nd, 2006 at 2:32 am and is filed under Refinance. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.