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Hispanics Found to be a Driving Market Force

To celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month, which occurs every October, Realtor.com [1] has published three new surveys outlining how Hispanic buyers affect real-estate market over the last year. 

The nationwide surveys included the Hispanic Homebuyer Profile [2], the Hispanic New Homeowner Profile [3], and the Hispanic Seller Profile [4] which can all be found at relator.com.  

Data from the Hispanic Homebuyer Profile showed that today’s average Hispanic homebuyer is a female millennial under the age of 35. They are also more likely to seek a home near their families, ask non-professional opinions from their family and friends, and more than likely will be purchasing their first home. The latest U.S. Census Bureau [5] data shows that the Hispanic population reached 62.1 million—or 18.7% of the total population—in 2020, a 23% increase from the previous census is 2010. 

According to realtor.com Economist Jiayi Xu [6], Hispanics are the fastest growing demographic group in the U.S. accounting for 51.1% of all population growth in the last 10 years—and that number is also seen in the number of Hispanic homebuyers which has gone up every year since 2017. 

“In terms of year-over-year change, the growth of Hispanic homebuyers in the U.S. has outpaced non-Hispanic buyers each month since 2018, with the exception of the onset of the pandemic in 2020,” Xu wrote in the report. “The number of Hispanic homebuyers grew by an average of 6.5% year-over-year between June 2018 and February 2020, while non-Hispanic homebuyers grew at an average of 2.6% year-over-year.” 

“When the pandemic hit in March, the year-over-year growth of Hispanic buyers started to slow compared with their peers, as they faced devastating job losses during this period, Xu continued. "According to the BLS data, the unemployment rate for Hispanics increased from 4.8% in February 2020 to a peak of 18.5% in April, which was the highest among all major groups. [Data] shows that we saw bigger yearly declines in the number of Hispanic homebuyers than non-Hispanic homebuyers for March-June 2020, seeing an average decrease of 15.6% year-over-year while non-Hispanic buyers decreased at an average of 14.2% versus the previous year. However, starting in July 2020, Hispanic homebuyer growth returned to form, and outpaced non-Hispanic homebuyer growth through the first half of 2021. The largest gap in year-over-year growth between Hispanic and non-Hispanic homebuyers occurred in May 2021, when the number of Hispanic homebuyers grew by 57.6% over May 2020, 11.8 percentage points more than non-Hispanic homebuyers.” 

As stated earlier, Hispanic women are most likely to purchase a home in the current market for a variety of reasons. Between 1990 and 2019 Hispanic women increased their homeownership rates by 15.3%, while men only increased by 3.2%. This is also partially due to fact that Hispanic women are more likely to attend higher education than their male counterparts which served as an economic buffer when the pandemic hit. 

Still, the number of male Hispanic buyers outpaced the number of non-Hispanic buyers by a healthy margin. Pre-pandemic, Hispanic males grew at an average of 5.8% year-over-year while non-Hispanic males grew by 1.6%. While the pandemic skewed the numbers because it disproportionately affected Hispanic men, homebuyer growth has recently recovered by 20.5% while non-Hispanic male growth occurred at a 15.7 rate. 

The third survey found that Hispanic home sellers are typically young, married, trying to find the best situation for their school-aged children, and usually live in urban areas. Most cited the reason that they were selling as to take advantage of the red-hot market or to move closer to family. 

Click here to view the comprehensive report [7] found at realtor.com