Owning a home is the American Dream.
Once someone has finally saved up the funds and become financially stable enough to own their little peace of real estate they can finally say, “Hey, I’ve made it.”
But rising home prices and tough lending standards have made homeownership something that is far from reality for many.
This is especially true for minority groups throughout the United States.
African-Americans, Asians and Latinos have been constantly left out of the home buyer game, for a variety of reasons.
Although we have seen an increase in minorities purchasing homes in the past few years, more needs to be done to increase the amounts of different races buying homes.
Education is key in this dilemma to get more types of people into real estate and home buying transactions.
A recent article from RISMedia.com, “Closing the gap on minority homeownership,” discusses what is being done within the industry to get more minorities into homes throughout the country, and especially in California.
A noted title insurance company is leading the way in spreading awareness on the fact that more minorities need to become homeowners.
“Fidelity National Financial, Inc. (FNF) announced the expansion of their Multicultural Marketing Program into San Joaquin and Sacramento counties in California. The program, led by the company’s Multicultural Marketing Division, is a continuing effort by FNF, one of the nation’s leading providers of title insurance, specialty insurance and claims management services, to close the home-ownership gap for Latinos, Asians, and African-Americans.”
Multicultural efforts such as the ones being employed by FNF, will begin to close the gap within the home buying sector.
Helping the home buying market to become more diverse will only result in a stimulated market and overall economy – two things that are very good for anyone’s financial outlook and optimism.
But surprisingly enough, the state that is known for having a very multicultural presence is actually well behind the rest of the nation when it comes to minority homeownership rates.
“According to 2004 U.S. Census statistics, minority home-ownership rates in California are below the national average. The Latino home-ownership rate in California is at 44%, the Asian-American home-ownership rate is at 55.4%, and the African-American home-ownership rate is at 38.8%.”
“Nationally, the home-ownership rates are 50% for Latinos (U.S. Census 2006), 58.6% for Asian-Americans and 49% for African-Americans. In San Joaquin County the minority home-ownership rates are at 47% and 48% in Sacramento County according to the U.S. Census 2000 data.”
Hopefully more awareness and education will spread and we can close the gap on homeownership once and for all.