The entire country has been under the foreclosure crisis over the past months – the Hispanic population is not an exception.
In San Bernardino, California, loan applications are less rigid than usual – no down payments or credit records are required. Thus, many Hispanics vied for their own homes. They did not know that they would soon be part of the foreclosure crisis.
The high homeownership rate among Hispanics has been fuelled by a variety of reasons. First, migrants consider homeownership as a determinant of success in the United States. Another major reason is the legislation pushed by California Representative Joe Baca, giving way to a more lenient loan process.
Also, low-income housing groups, lenders, and other concerned sectors of the community have been pushing for Hispanic homeownership. In the previous years, lenders were choosing loan applications based on race. Because of joint efforts, Latinos were successfully granted mortgage privilege.
Approximately 9,200 homeowners in the district have already fallen victim to foreclosure. Although most part of the country have gone through the housing crisis, there is no denying that Hispanic borrowers have been hit hard, partly because majority of the Latino population are in the areas of Southern California, Nevada, and Florida where the foreclosure crisis is most evident.
In counties with large Hispanic population, 6.7 properties per 1000 residents have been repossessed since 2006. In all other counties, 4.6 per 1000 properties are foreclosed.
Some lawmakers say that the situation resulted from shortcomings on the part of subprime lenders. They say that even borrowers with prime credit records are being classified as subprime loans which have higher interest rates.
Some groups have taken initiatives to help Hispanic homeowners troubled by foreclosure. Nahrep agents are now working on plans on negotiating with banks so that Hispanic homeowners can sell their properties at a loss so they would not have to pay their mortgages any longer.
![[Valid RSS feed]](http://www.realestateproarticles.com/images/icon_Rss.png "XML Feed For RSS"){kind=icon}
Category Rss Feed
Print This Article
Add To Favorites