Hispanic homeownership continues to rise

Hispanic homeownership reached 46.2 percent in 2017, an increase from 2016.

According to the 2017 State of Hispanic Homeownership Report, Hispanic homeownership rose 0.2 percent in the past year, and Hispanics are the only demographic to have continued to grow their rate of homeownership. Hispanics represented 15 percent of net homeownership gains in 2017, and have been responsible for 46.5 percent of net homeownership in the county since 2000. Hispanics are predicted to add 6 million additional households by 2024, leading growth in the country.

“It’s nice to see that Hispanics are the top buyers three years in a row,” said Alexa Sanchez, a Realtor® in the Poconos, who started a chapter of the National Association of Hispanic Real Estate Professionals in her area. “It hasn’t grown as quickly as past years, but there is still an incline. The Hispanic population is growing a lot faster. People who have become citizens want to establish roots, so they buy.”

More than one-quarter of new household formations in the U.S. were Hispanics, representing 265,000 new households. The Hispanic population grew 1.1 million in 2017, representing more than half of population growth in the U.S., and there are now 58.6 million Hispanics in the country. Luzerne County has been one of the fastest-growing areas for Hispanic residents in the U.S. In Pennsylvania, the Hispanic homeownership rate is 40.6 percent, with the Hispanic share of the state population being 6.6 percent. The median income for a Hispanic household in the commonwealth is $38,271.

However, the status of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals is definitely causing hesitancy and possibly slowing the growth of Hispanic homeownership.

“Here in the Poconos, I see DACA as an issue,” said Sanchez. “People have come to me to sell because of the political environment. I feel it’s a case-by-case situation. They still have this fear. I understand it, my parents went through citizenship. I saw their struggles, so I get it.”

“Latinos are here and we are here to stay,” added Sanchez.