Hispanic Housing Experience in the United States

October 13, 2022  

Hispanic Housing Experience in the United States

As Hispanic Heritage Month comes to a close on October 15, PD&R wants to highlight recent research on the Hispanic Housing Experience in the United States. In a two-part series, PD&R’s Cityscape: A Journal of Policy Development and Research explored this topic in detail. Part I focused on Hispanic homelessness and residential segregation, and Part II focused on assisted housing, homeownership, and the transition of wealth. Below we include some highlights from the fifteen symposium articles in the series.

• Yana Kucheva analyzed patterns of residential segregation among Hispanic households and suggested policy changes that have the potential to help more low-income Hispanic residents move to amenity-rich neighborhoods.

• Keith Wiley, Lance George, and Sam Lipshutz examined the connection between Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac’s Duty to Serve (DTS) policy obligations and access to mortgages in colonias ― communities along the U.S.-Mexico border whose residents live in varying degrees of informality often lacking basic infrastructure, utilities, and titles to the land. The researchers identified government-recognized colonias to help these Government-Sponsored Enterprises to target, plan, and evaluate their DTS work.

• Rocio Sanchez-Moyano conducted a regression analysis that controlled for financial, demographic, and mortgage characteristics. He found that Hispanic homebuyers tend to purchase homes in low-income neighborhoods with fewer White neighbors even when qualified to purchase homes in higher-opportunity neighborhoods.

• Dowell Myers and David Flores Moctezuma projected the future of predominantly Hispanic neighborhoods in Los Angeles by examining age trends of Hispanics, their ability to purchase a home, and whether or not they are income-qualified to replace White homeowners who are considerably older. The article found that Los Angeles County will have fewer older White homeowners, as they are gradually replaced by a growing Hispanic base, but in East Los Angeles, the authors found that elderly Hispanics are being replaced by younger Whites (and Asians).

• Anna Maria Santiago and Joffré Leroux studied Latinx households who participated in the Denver Housing Authority’s Homeownership Program (HOP). Compared to non-HOP Latinx homeowners, homeowners who participated in HOP were more likely to hold 30-year fixed-rate mortgages at lower interest rates and reside in larger homes with fewer upkeep issues. Latinx HOP homeowners also owned their homes about 2 years longer than non-HOP homeowners.

• Samantha Friedman, Elizabeth Fussell, Mayuko Nakatsuka, and Recai Yucel used 2017 American Housing Survey data to examine disparities in disaster preparedness among Hispanics and other racial and ethnic groups. While the study found that Hispanics were generally less prepared than non-Hispanic Whites on resource- and action-based measures, Hispanics, Blacks, and Asians were significantly more likely than Whites to have at least 3 gallons of water per person, and Hispanics and Blacks were significantly more likely than Whites and Asians to have flood insurance.

Visit HUD User’s Cityscape page to learn more about the Hispanic Housing Experience in the United States.

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