NAHREP
Here’s an eye-opening statistic: The Hispanic population accounted for 71% of the U.S. population growth between 2022 and 2023, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. About two-thirds of the increase came from more births than deaths (722,000). Another third came from migration (437,000).
Already the second-largest minority group in the U.S., Hispanics as a group grew by 1.8%, surpassing 65 million people. All other ethnic groups grew at just 0.2% in that time frame, with the white population actually decreasing.
It’s one of the reasons the Urban Institute expects that 70% of new homeowners will be Hispanic between 2020 and 2040. Gary Acosta, CEO and co-founder of the National Association of Hispanic Real Estate Professionals (NAHREP), spoke to Scotsman Guide about this growing market.
The Hispanic population is the fastest-growing population in the U.S. by a wide margin. Are businesses recognizing this reality?
For the most part, yes. I started NAHREP 25 years ago (last month). When we started, a lot of my time was spent educating companies and individuals about what I described as this tidal wave that was coming around the corner. We don’t do that quite as much now, because there’s a lot of data and people can see it firsthand. People tend to be more interested in, ‘OK. How do we reach this market?’
How does a mortgage company or real estate brokerage tap into that market?
My son used to play college basketball. When he was little, he used to ask me, ‘Dad, do I need to be 7 feet tall to play in the NBA?’ And I said, ‘No, but it helps.’ My first answer to that question is, hiring people that come from the community and who can speak the language definitely gives companies a competitive advantage.
Secondly, I think companies need to look at the unique business needs that Hispanic consumers tend to have. A much higher percentage of Hispanic homebuyers are first-time homebuyers. While Hispanics are closing the income gap, there’s still a pretty substantial wealth gap. Which means if you want to service this market, you’ve got to have low downpayment mortgages as a product.
Are you seeing a surge in Hispanics reaching the homebuying ages?
Hispanics, on average, are about 29 years old. If you look at the average age of a typical Hispanic, that’s 10 years younger than the overall U.S. population and 15 years younger than the non-Hispanic white population.
If you look at what are the typical homebuying years, that’s like 35 to 50, when most people either buy that first home or that move-up home. So, you can make the argument that Latinos are just starting to enter those prime homebuying years.
Interest rates and the housing shortage will affect the Hispanic market like all borrowers. How do you overcome that?
The reason why home prices have increased as much as they have is because there’s a lack of housing supply in most markets throughout the country. Obviously, we need to build more homes to meet the demand and to temper the surge in prices that we’ve experienced over the past several years.
What do you like about what you’ve seen from the Trump administration so far?
Well, not much yet. Donald Trump did put out a statement or an executive order that required agencies to look for ways to reduce home prices and basically address the affordable housing crisis. So that’s good that he sees it as a priority. We don’t know exactly what’s going to play out.
What are your concerns?
If you look at what any builder will tell you, there are three primary issues with building homes — housing supplies like lumber, labor and land. Tariffs and mass deportations are gonna disproportionately affect the homebuilding community. So that is a concern.
It seems like a priority for the Hispanic community to have a legal process for immigration, right?
People come to this country for one reason — and that’s to work and to improve their economic status. People come to this country illegally because there’s people here that are willing to hire them. Let’s address that.
One of the things that I really just adamantly disagree with is that people come to this country so that they can live on the dole, take advantage of our social systems. There isn’t any data that supports that. Illegal labor is not good for anybody. It’s not good for the country and it’s not good for the individuals either, who are in many cases exploited.
Any final thoughts?
The Latino community represents the (largest source of) entrants into the labor market. These are where our workers are coming from today. They are just entering those prime homebuying years. They are the largest-growing consumer segment that we have. What’s good for the Hispanic community is good for the country.
