Posted on: Friday, August 6, 2004

Housing industry courts immigrants

By Sue Kirchoff
USA Today

WASHINGTON — Feng shui consultants are helping home builders connect with Asian clients. Home Depot has increased its Hispanic advertising budget. Real estate agents from Pennsylvania to rural Texas are enrolling in classes on cross-cultural marketing.

They're all reaching out to the more than 30 million immigrants in the United States who are an increasingly important factor in the housing market by revitalizing inner cities, changing the texture of suburbs and propelling subtle changes in home design.

Higher-than-expected immigration, both legal and illegal, is a major reason some economists expect the housing market to stay strong as mortgage rates rise from their lowest level in decades and baby boomers begin retiring, putting homes on the market.

Foreign-born households bought nearly 8 percent of new homes and 11 percent of existing homes from 1998 to 2001. Immigrants were 12 percent of first-time home buyers in 2001 and buy more expensive homes on average than U.S.-born first-time owners, says the Harvard University Joint Center for Housing Studies.

Although immigrants are concentrated in about a dozen large cities, including New York, Miami and Los Angeles, they are spreading out. Thirteen states had more than a 100 percent rise in their foreign-born population in the 1990s.

Although immigrants are a growing presence, they lag the U.S.-born population by large margins when it comes to homeownership.

About half of immigrants own homes, compared with 70 percent of those born in the United States, a gap that closes as immigrants become U.S. citizens.

The difference is also reflected in minority and white realty rates. About 47 percent of Hispanic and 49.7 percent of Black households own their homes, compared with about 76 percent of whites. About 58 percent of Asian, Native American and Pacific Islander households are owners, says the National Association of Realtors.