• by Jack Loechner , Staff Writer @mp_research, April 20, 2005

According to projections in a recently released report titled The State of the Nation's Housing 2004, from the Joint Center for Housing Studies at Harvard, University Hispanics will account for one-third of the growth in the number of U.S. homeowners by the year 2020. Minority homeownership rates, though, still lag those of whites by nearly 25%.

According to the study, minorities have accounted for two out of every five new homeowners from 1994 to 2003. Across the nation, banks and lender companies are stepping up their efforts to capitalize on the trend, with ad campaigns and TV marketing tools.

Recently, Countrywide Home Loans Inc. became a sponsor of the new Telemundo home makeover reality show, and the National Association of Realtors launched its first-ever Spanish-language television ad to encourage Hispanics to work with a realtor.

"The financial institutions are seeing the Hispanic population numbers increase, and they know this community will eventually want to buy a home [if they aren't able to already]," said Erika Prosper, director of strategies and planning at ad agency Garcia 360. "Their potential [revenue] is huge."

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