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Hispanics are one of the fastest growing group of homeowners in the U.S., the Wall Street Journal reports. WSJ states that Hispanics are experiencing the largest homeownership gains of any ethnic group in the U.S., bouncing back from a 50-year low in 2015. Data from the U.S. Census Bureau indicates that HIspanic homeownership has increased by 3.3 percentage points since 2015, compared to the overall U.S. homeownership rate increase of 1.3 percentage points since the homeownership rate bottomed out in 2016.
The National Association of Hispanic Real Estate Professionals (NAHREP) states that Hispanics accounted for the majority of new U.S. homeowner gains over the past decade, making up nearly 63% of total gains.
“The housing market would look very different today if it weren’t for a tidal wave of Latino home buyers,” Gary Acosta, NAHREP’s co-founder and Chief Executive told WSJ.
Despite the increases in homeownership, Hispanic homeowners are still at high risk of foreclosure, especially for those who took advantage of risky loans during the housing crisis. According to Zillow, homes in Hispanic neighborhoods were 2.5 times more likely to be foreclosed upon than homes in white communities between 2007 and 2015, after hispanics and blacks saw significant gains in homeownership as lenders targeted minority buyers with these risky loans, eventually leading to foreclosure.
A study from Clever.com revealed the racial disparities among mortgage applicants. According to the study, African-Americans are twice as likely to be denied a mortgage when controlling for income, and African-Americans (105%) and Hispanics (78%) were more likely to use high-cost mortgages to purchase a home.
Looking at borrowers by race, it indicated that "mortgage applicants are predominantly white." Out of the sample of 1.7 million applicants analyzed by Clever.com, more than 1.4 million mortgage applicants were white, compared to 80,442 African Americans, 93,762 Asian Americans, 29,293 American Indians, and 15,645 Native Hawaiians or Pacific Islanders.
