The growing Hispanic population will fuel the Valley's housing market during the next decade, and real estate agents, lenders and home builders are catering to this new change.
Almost 34 percent of Phoenix residents are Hispanic, according to recent U.S. Census Bureau data. If that trend continues, Latinos will become a greater proportion of the Valley's population during the next decade.
No exact estimates are available on how many Hispanics bought homes across the Greater Phoenix area last year, but real estate analysts said the numbers have been steadily climbing during the past five years. That growth comes in part from immigration, which has brought new residents and their spending to the nation as well as Arizona. That trend is expected to bring a steady flow of new home buyers over the next decade.
More programs are out there to help the growing population, and more Hispanics are realizing they can afford a home, said Omar Zaleta of Coldwell Banker Exito Realty.
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"Low interest rates help a lot, but Hispanic
buyers have more options now than before," Zaleta said.
He said many Hispanic buyers face two hurdles. One is the language barrier,
and the other is cultural differences in spending.
Many Hispanics don't carry the debt loads that other people do because they
use cash instead of credit cards for most purchases. This financially savvy
practice has hurt some people trying to buy homes because they have a sparse
credit history.
Several lenders have launched programs in the past year to get past the
credit issue. Instead of looking at whether Hispanics take out loans and
make payments on those loans on time, some are looking at whether basic
bills for water or electricity are paid.
"With nearly 500,000 Hispanics in Maricopa County, there's a tremendous void
in addressing their needs," said Bob McCord, chief executive of Coldwell
Banker Success Realty.
Last year, Coldwell purchased Colonial Realty, a longtime Valley brokerage
working with Hispanic customers. It has since been renamed Exito, which mean
success in Spanish.
Other brokerages have hired Spanish-speaking agents or are training people
in the language. Builders are doing the same.
"Immigration, especially the Hispanic market, plays an important role in
housing, and the economy," said Jim Lesinski, a vice president with Pulte
Homes, which recently launched a Spanish-language Web site for home buyers,
www.espanol.pulte.com.
While ownership among first-time Hispanic buyers is supposed to post the
biggest increase, many other Latinos, who already own, are expected to move
to bigger homes.
In metropolitan Phoenix, Latino buyers are flocking to areas in south
Phoenix and West Valley cities like Maryvale and Avondale.
Home prices and sales in those areas have soared as a result, according to
The Republic's annual housing market survey.
The Arizona Republic
Mar. 2, 2003