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Latinos across the United States have taken a tremendous hit from the coronavirus pandemic in terms of jobs, salaries and health, yet the community remains resilient, entrepreneurial and optimistic, according to a report released Friday by the National Association of Hispanic Real Estate Professionals, a nonprofit organization.
NAHREP notes in its fifth annual State of Hispanic Wealth Report that the recovery and continued economic growth of Latino households, workers and businesses are inseparable from the country's long-term growth and stability.
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In 2014, the Hispanic Wealth Project (HWP) set the goal to triple median household wealth by 2024. To guide that goal, it created a blueprint outlining three primary areas of focus, along with a series of targeted component goals: building wealth through increasing homeownership and small business ownership, and growing savings and investments.
Here's a progress report, from 2013 to a midpoint based on more recent data to 2024:
- Homeownership rate - 2013: 46.1%; 2019: 47.5%; 2024 goal: 50%
- Hispanic employer firms – 2013: 298,563; 2018: 322,076; 2024 goal: 400,000+
- Retirement account participation – 2013: 25.1%; 2016: 29.7%; 2024 goal: 37%+
- Total median household wealth – 2013: $13,700; 2016: $20,600; 2024 goal: $41,100
Key Survey Findings
The HWP survey was conducted online in mid-August 2020 among 2,200 households, with an oversampling of 1,000 additional Latino households. In addition to the survey, the assessments on Latino wealth as of mid-2020 were based primarily on findings from the American Community Survey, Household Pulse Survey, Annual Business Survey, Bureau of Labor Statistics and the Stanford Latino Entrepreneurship Initiative surveys.
Homeownership
Even amidst the pandemic, a boom is happening among first-time homebuyers and millennials, according to the survey. The highest loan application activity among those two groups over the last year has occurred in census tracts with majority Latino populations.
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Latinos were 25% likelier than their non-Hispanic white counterparts to own an investment property outside their primary residence; this despite a 16 percentage-point homeownership gap between the two groups.
Two in five Latino renters said they expected to buy a home in the next five years, compared with one in three non-Hispanic renters.
Entrepreneurship
The HWP reported that Latino employer businesses grew twice as fast as the general population. As of 2018, a quarter of new entrepreneurs was Latino.
Latinos were more than twice as likely as their non-Hispanic white counterparts to invest in a business when they had extra cash, according to the survey. Thirteen percent of households that do not already own a business planned to start one in the next five years.
