Daily Real Estate News | Monday, September 22, 2014

A booming Hispanic population will be the key to the nation’s future residential real estate market, Julian Castro, the newly confirmed secretary of the Housing and Urban Development, told The Associated Press.

“The prosperity of the United States and the prosperity of the Hispanic community, as the fastest-growing community, are one and the same,” Castro told the Associated Press. “The destinies are one and the same.”

Nearly half of first-time homebuyers nationwide will be Hispanic in six years, according to a 2013 study from the National Association of Hispanic Real Estate Professionals. What’s more, Hispanics are forecasted to account for 40 percent of the estimated 12 million net new households nationwide within the next decade.

Castro says that an overhaul of federal immigration laws could further aid the U.S. housing market. Federal immigration law changes could add about 3 million home owners and generate more than $500 billion in sales, income, and spending into the housing economy, estimates the National Association of Hispanic Real Estate Professionals study.

“It’s a significant contribution if we can get immigration reform done,” Castro says.