Survey: Latinos yearn to own homes

While California's Latinos are less likely to own a home than the state's non-minority population, 81 percent of its Latino voters and 92 percent of its Latino nonvoters hope to become homeowners one day, according to the results of a poll released today by the California building industry.

Difficulties Latinos encounter in becoming home buyers illustrate the severity of California's problem in providing housing that its citizens can afford, the California Building Industry Association reported. California has one of the lowest rates of home ownership in the nation.

Top reasons Latinos gave for wanting to own a home was to provide a better environment for raising children, followed closely by the possibility of creating long-term wealth. The main reasons Latinos said they were not buying were that they could not afford a home in a community where they would like to live and that they were waiting for the housing market to decline further.

In an effort to paint a comprehensive picture of the Latino community's attitudes towards homeownership, CBIA said a statewide public opinion survey was taken in August of 957 adults, including 800 registered Latino voters and 150 Latino nonvoters.

"This information, combined with the demographic trends in California, demonstrate that California's housing problem is extremely important to the Latino community and it portends a future housing crisis," the CBIA said in a prepared statement.

Latinos are expected to represent the vast majority of the state's population growth over more than the next two decades. According to 2004 U.S Census data, 44 percent of California Hispanics were home owners, compared to almost 60 percent of all Californians.

Source: Press Enterprise, 10/8/07