April 10, 2024
GROWING COMMUNITY MEDIA
AT HOME ON THE GREATER WEST SIDE A GCM GUIDE TO HOMEOWNERSHIP
Nearly half of U.S. Latinos own their own homes – here’s how you can, too Michelle Flores of National Association of Hispanic Real Estate Professionals explains how By DELANEY NELSON Special Projects Reporter
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n 2023, there were more than 9.5 million Latino homeowners in the United States, according to a report by the National Association of Hispanic Real Estate Professionals®. In other words, about half of Latinos in the U.S. own their homes. In Chicago, that figure stood at around 43% in 2017, nonprofit Prosperity Now reported. While the national rate of Latino homeownership is trending upward, barriers remain. High interest rates, lack of conventional financing options for people without Social Security numbers, and high rates of mortgage denials all make it harder for Latinos to achieve homeownership, according to NAHREP. Michelle Flores, executive secretary of the Chicago chapter of NAHREP, said Latinos — especially those who are undocumented immigrants — may face unique challenges to homeownership, including language barriers, limited access to credit and difficulty obtaining home loans. In her roles at NAHREP
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and as a Realtor, she works to boost sustainable Hispanic homeownership. It starts by providing bilingual services and education to her clients. Austin Weekly News spoke with Flores about the hurdles Latino homebuyers are facing, and the community resources available to overcome them. What are some of the barriers to achieving sustainable Hispanic homeownership? It is a little more difficult to obtain home loans than it would be for someone who is not of the Hispanic background and actually, anyone who is an immigrant — which, a lot of the immigrants that we come across are mostly Latino, or Hispanic. And so most of my buyer pipeline, or even some of my seller pipeline, are either immigrants or their families are first-generation immigrants. On the buyer side, some of the barriers that they encounter is being able to be approved for a home loan. When they don’t have status, they don’t have a Social Security number, they don’t have a line of credit. They can’t qualify for traditional home loans like FHA, conventional, and they don’t qualify for downpayment assistance. Luckily for myself, I was born and raised here in Chicago, so I’m grateful that I don’t have that issue. But my clients do, my sphere does. Nationally, we are advocating for immigration reform as part of our public policy.
Another barrier is access to credit. Many don’t have access to credit — whether it’s because they don’t have a Social Security Number or, even if they do as residents or citizens, they haven’t obtained a credit card or a car loan to establish their credit. Yet they work, they have a steady, stable income, they’ve been paying rent somewhere for the past two or 10, 15, 20 years, but they’ve just never established credit. So it’s [establishing] different ways of viewing credit and different ways of viewing cash flow. Some of our Hispanic families are 1099’ers versus W-2’ers. So that income is different — how we utilize that or we look at it on the credit side or on the income side for qualifications is different from how we would look at somebody who has a W-2. Language is another barrier. I can only speak for my Latino community, the majority of my clientele. But I know from common sense that another language barrier is not just Spanish. All of the legal documentation in real estate is in English, locally and nationally. Even in real estate classes to become a Realtor, everything is in English. So we see it on the professional side just as much as the buyers and sellers see it on the buy and sell side. The only way around that that I’ve seen and I’ve been able to help, to a certain extent, is finding bilingual professionals.
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