The lack of affordable homes in this country doesn’t seem to be hindering the Hispanic population. According to the National Association of Hispanic Real Estate professionals (NAHREP), the Hispanic homeownership rate grew to 48.6%, marking the eighth consecutive year of growth.
Latinos added a net total of 349,000 homeowner households last year, which is one of the largest single-year gains over the last decade. Since 2014, when homeownership rates among Latinos began increasing following the Great Recession, 2.3 million net new Hispanic homeowner households had been added to the market, accounting for 24.4% of overall homeownership growth. Today, there are 9.2 million Hispanic homeowner households.
Latinos made up 38.7% of all household formations last year, marking a major improvement from the previous two years when an unexpected boom in non-Hispanic White household formations nearly doubled that of Latino households.
The report states this shift in recent trends was expected, though, citing the growth of the Latino community as a chief factor in new household formations.
According to the report, Latinos trend younger as homeowners. About 70.6% of Latinos who purchased a home with a mortgage in 2021 were under the age of 45, compared to 63.9% of the general population, and 61.5% of non-Hispanic White buyers, according to data from the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA).
About 33% of Latinos aged 45 and under have the credit characteristics to qualify for a mortgage. Among those who don’t already have a mortgage, the share of mortgage-ready Latinos increases to 39%, according to Freddie Mac. The report added that Latinos are the largest near mortgage-ready population out of any other racial or ethnic group.
Latinos tend to be concentrated in larger cities and coastal markets where home prices are high, the report said. However, Texas has consistently topped the list for most Latino net migration, best opportunity markets and producing the greatest number of new Latino homeowners. Between 2020 and 2022, Texas saw a net gain of nearly 150,000 Latino residents. McAllen, Brownsville, and El Paso, Texas also made up the top three opportunity markets for Latinos, based on the number of mortgage-ready Latinos and affordability.
“Despite market challenges, the future of homeownership growth will continue to rely on Latinos, given that they are young, growing in population, and rapidly forming new households,” a spokesperson from NAHREP said.
With the increasing Latino population, NAHREP says that this could close the homeownership gap between the non-Hispanic White and Latino homeownership gap. An increase in Special Purpose Credit Programs (SPCPs) also could play a role. SPCP mortgage types include refinance, purchase, construction, home equity lines of credit (HELOC) and down payment or closing cost assistance.
Staff writer Katie Jensen also contributed to this report.
