Content provided in partnership with
For new citizens, American dream includes a house
Insight on the News, August 21, 1995 by Carole Fleck
Throughout the year, at ceremonies eliciting tears of joy, immigrants are sworn as U.S. citizens. After they pledge to uphold the laws of the land, they become something more than new Americans; to realtors and lenders, they become coveted future home buyers.
Representatives of the Federal National Mortgage Association, or Fannie Mae, often attend such ceremonies to welcome the new citizens and, more importantly, explain the steps involved in buying a home. "Immigrants want to have what the American dream offers," says John Buckley, a spokesman for Fannie Mae, the secondary mortgage-market company based in Washington. "Immigrants want what Americans want, only more so."
- Most Popular Articles in News
- The Ten Best Laptop bags
- Tata plans cheapest-ever car for Indian market
- GLOBALIZATION AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF UNDERDEVELOPMENT OF THE THIRD WORLD
- Corn is good for you; Corn is not only a tasty treat, but also a cereal that ...
- THE 50 BEST STYLISH HANDBAGS TO CARRY
- More »
Buckley has the research to prove it. In a national housing survey Fannie Mae commissioned involving 395 immigrants and 1,004 native-born adults, immigrants were nearly three times as likely to consider home buying their "No. 1 priority." Moreover, the survey found that immigrants as a group were more likely than all adults to buy a home during the next three years. They also were more likely to believe that now is a good time to buy a home.
They were, however, more likely to list confusion about the purchasing process as a barrier to home ownership. They also were nearly twice as likely as all adults to cite discrimination as an obstacle.
"What the survey shows beyond doubt is that immigrants come to America for the reasons we believe in America -- democracy and opportunity," Buckley says. "The survey also shows that immigrants want to own homes and be a full part of American society."
About 9 million foreigners are expected to immigrate to America by the end of the century. The poll found that 50 percent of all immigrants think of themselves as foreigners living in America, while 34 percent say they are Americans born in a foreign country. Among immigrants who own homes, however, 38 percent consider themselves Americans while 41 percent think of themselves as foreigners, the poll revealed.
Owning a home is more important to immigrants from Mexico; 74 percent rank it "very important" to their "No. 1 priority" while 70 percent from the Caribbean and Central and South America list it as such. In contrast, 52 percent of immigrants from Europe, Canada and the former Soviet Union rank it as very important.
Surprisingly, immigrants were less daunted than all adults by the down payment required for a home. Forty-four percent of adults list accumulating a down payment as an obstacle, while only 39 percent of immigrants agree. Yet the survey found that 51 percent of immigrants and 59 percent of all adults reported household incomes of more than $20,000 a year.
"Home ownership is more intense for people who have a harder time achieving it than it is for middle-class whites," Buckley says, adding that they nonetheless are underterred. "Immigrants have an absolute sustaining level of optimism," he says. "They are more likely to believe the economy will get better next year and their family finances will get better and they will be able to buy a home in the next year. And that's an interesting statement on who immigrants are."
In an attempt to woo this promising target market, which largely has gone unnoticed, Buckley says Fannie Mae has printed home-ownership guides in seven languages. He says it also is working with the Immigration and Naturalization Service and community organizations "to try and equate citizenship with home ownership."
Company representatives attended a recent housing festival in Queens, N.Y., that attracted nearly 1 million immigrants. Lenders and other industry officials used the festival to explain how to buy a home as well as the advantages of home ownership.
Laura Duenes, a community-investment officer at Citibank Federal Savings Bank in Washington, says her company has hired a diverse sales force: People from foreign lands tend to be more trusting of loan officers who speak their language. "The industry by and large is realizing there's a large market out there we can serve," she says. "In this area, lots of communities have very fast-growing [foreign-born] populations that are definitely a significant part of the market now and will continue to be a larger part of the market. We're doing ever more work toward those populations. With studies like Fannie Mae's, banks will realize it's in their self-interest to go after those markets."
COPYRIGHT 1995 News World Communications, Inc.
COPYRIGHT 2008 Gale, Cengage Learning
