NEW YORK – Sept. 15, 2015 – Wells Fargo Home Mortgage took the wraps off an ambitious plan to loan $125 billion to as many as 500,000 Hispanic homebuyers over the next decade, capitalizing on a growing and underserved segment of the U.S. market.
The U.S. Census Bureau predicts that the Hispanic population in the U.S. will more than double by 2060.
Currently, though, Hispanic households continue to face lower homeownership rates than their neighbors. In the last three months of 2014, 45 percent of Hispanic households owned their home, versus 72 percent of white households and 64 percent of all U.S. households, according to the Census Bureau.
"This is a great business opportunity for Wells Fargo, as well as the right thing to do," says Brad Blackwell, head of portfolio lending for Wells Fargo Home Mortgage.
Access to credit is the biggest barrier preventing many Hispanic households from buying a home, reports Gary Acosta, CEO of the National Association of Hispanic Real Estate Professionals. Many Hispanic households have little credit because they, in general, avoid debt and do not use credit cards.
Acosta says that lending restrictions that prevent extended family members from pooling their money for a downpayment also hurt Hispanic households.
Source: Des Moines Register (09/15/15) Aschbrenner, Joel
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