Since day one of my mortgage career, my main role was to help Hispanic borrowers with responsible lending. For the past 21 years, I have been deeply entrenched in truly understanding the unique needs and cultural nuances of homebuyers with diverse backgrounds. Being an active originator helps me keep a pulse on the market and the current issues borrowers face every day on their journey to homeownership.

Minority mortgage-ready millennials

I interact daily with first-time buyers and buyers of diverse backgrounds and continue to help them achieve the dream of homeownership. In my role as national vice president of multicultural lending, I’m involved at a high level with the executive leadership team here at New American Funding, providing input regarding what is really going on at the “street-level” and being the liaison between our sales force and executive leadership.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, there are now 60.6 million Hispanics in America. That is almost 19% of the entire US population. And according to Freddie Mac, in 2019, there were 8.3 million Hispanic mortgage-ready millennials, or as we like to call them at New American Funding, “Hispennials”. The Hispanic market presents a tremendous business opportunity now and for years to come if approached correctly. Despite the recent COVID-19 pandemic, the Hispanic homeownership rate increased to 49% in 2020, compared to 47.5% in 2019, per the National Association of Hispanic Real Estate Professionals’ 2020 State of Hispanic Homeownership Report.

According to the Urban Institute, all future homeownership growth will come from non-White households, with Hispanics accounting for 70% of homeownership growth over the next 20 years. Per Freddie Mac, in the 31 largest MSAs, there are over 1.7 million Black millennials who would qualify for a mortgage. New York City, Atlanta, Washington D.C. and Chicago each have more than 100,000 Black residents ready for homeownership.

And according to a November 2020 report released by the National Association of Realtors, 5% of homebuyers during the first three quarters of 2020 were Black, compared to 4% in 2019. Despite a 1% increase, U.S. Census data shows Black millennials raised the homeownership rate for African Americans more than 2% over the same time frame. The homeownership rate for Black Americans grew to 47% during the second quarter of 2020 compared to 44% during the first quarter.