Sol Trujillo, the former CEO of U.S. multinational corporations,  and co-founder of L'ATTITUDE, launched a LinkedIn live series on Tuesday, April 20, to inform audiences on developing and underreported sectors in America's 21st-century economy. 

His first guest was Gary Acosta, the co-founder of National Association of Hispanic Real Estate Professionals (NAHREP) and L'ATTITUDE. They talked about a new report that NAHREP made public that same day. 

One of the surprising things that the report, titled 2020 State of Hispanic Homeownership, revealed is that despite the financial impacts of COVID-19, the number of Latinos buying homes continues to increase every year. 

Estimates from last year show that about 8.8 million housing units in the U.S. are owned by a Hispanic and this is an increase of 725,000 units compared to 2019. 

The trend is set to continue as the Urban Institute found that between 2020 and 2040, 70% of new homeowners will be Latino. 

Acosta helped found NAHREP in 1999, and he has been releasing a report on Hispanic homeownership for the last 11 years. 

The report’s publication has highlighted that Hispanics are the only demographic to have six straight years of growth in their rate of homeownership, and 2020 was not the exception. 

Acosta claims that youth is key to explaining why Latinos are making strides in the housing market.  

“The other data point that is really indicative is the youth of the Latino community. They are 15 years younger on average than non-Hispanic whites … Our average age is about 29 years. The average age of homebuyer is 35 years, so that tells us that Latinos are just starting to enter those prime home-buying years,” he said in the event. 

Unexpected for many is the fact that Trujillo’s home state of Wyoming has had the highest Hispanic homeownership rate increase from 2009 to 2019. In the 10-year span, it has gone up 21.7% in the Cowboy State. 

According to USNEWS, Wyoming is the 13th state with the highest increase in Hispanic population this century. Hispanics went from making up 6.4% to 10.1% of the state’s population. 

Texas being the second most populous state and having the second highest number of Latinos has added the most homeowners in the same 10-year span. 421,352 more Latinos became first-time homeowners in that time. 

The NAHREP co-founder touched on how Latinos being more inclined to purchase homes that need repairs and wanting to customize them leads to an ecosystem effect that others need to be prepared for. 

“When you think of homeownership acquisition and that does for our economy and where revenue is generated you think about transactions, you think about mortgage revenue. But you may not think about all the ancillary revenue that is generated through the purchase of furniture and appliances, through home improvements,” Acosta said. 

Trujillo later referenced a Wall Street Journal article published on Tuesday morning that covered the benefits Hispanics have brought to the housing market and said that it painted the picture that the community is only buying low-end homes. 

“The typical home bought by a Hispanic household with a mortgage in 2020 had a value of $265,000, according to NAHREP's report. That was below the overall median U.S. existing-home price of $313,000 in February, according to the National Association of Realtors,” the article stated. 

The guest speaker made sure to clarify that a change to the rate of Hispanic homeownership is only made by first-time purchasers, which is what the new report focused on. 

The value of a person’s first home usually tends to be lower than the value of ones they buy later in their career. 

Between 48 and 49% of Hispanics in the U.S. owned a home in 2020 and this is one of the highest figures in recent years since its peak of 49.7% before the Great Recession. 

Acosta offered a personal anecdote in an attempt to combat the narrative Trujillo thought the article was setting. 

“What the report doesn’t talk about as much is the fact that Latinos in segments of the marketplace. In San Diego for example, where I live, if you go to Coronado and you see those high rise condominiums next to the Del Coronado Hotel, which are these spectacular luxury apartments, they’re nicknamed the ‘Taco Towers’ because they are owned almost exclusively by Latinos and Mexican immigrants,” the NAHREP executive said.