Experts: Hispanics Continue to Drive Sales

If you think the real estate bubble is about to burst, think again. The days of annual double-digit appreciation may be long gone, but experts say that immigrants, most notably hispanics, along with Americans born between 1977 and 1994, will continue to drive the Florida housing market for the next 10 to 15 years.

“Hispanic consumers in the U.S. represent $500 billion in purchasing power,” said Ernest J. Reyes, chairman of the National Association of Hispanic Realtors. “It’s an emerging market that cannot be ignored.”

Real estate professionals throughout the American southeast are already doing more to reach customers who speak a language other than English.

“Buying a home is confusing enough, without the language barrier,” said Francie Ryder of the Chattanooga Association of Realtors in Tennessee. “That’s why we’ve added foreign language capability to our website and listings.”

Visitors to the that realtor association’s website can click on an icon for Spanish, Portugese, German, French, Italian, Polish, Russian, two Chinese dialects, as well as Japanese, Korean and Vietnamese. Ryder said the service is provided by the association’s website developer.

“They had it available and we saw the need for it. It’s getting a fair amount of use,” she said.

More and more Broward and Miami-Dade real estate firms are offering real estate agents, as South Florida’s Spanish speaking population continues to grow. Which, especially in today’s market, where every little edge helps, is key to a successful home purchase. That is nothing new for our area, but even in places as far north as Tennessee, the growth of the Latino population is becoming evident.

“I’ve interviewed two (Spanish speaking) job candidates, but I haven’t made a hiring decision yet,” said Marion Curtis of Curtis Realty.

Until the veteran Chattanooga Realtor finds the right person for the job, she’s relying on a loose-knit network of friends and associates for the assistance she needs.

“Right now I’m lucky engough to have a bilingual mortgage broker,” she Curtis said. “And I have two clients who can help me out with interpreting and transalting for Spanish and Portugese-speaking clients.”

Jim Gillespie, president and CEO of Coldwell Banker, recently spoke in Dalton, Ga., regarding the positive effect of the burgeoning immigrant population on the real estate market there.

“It’s a powerful impact,” Mr. Gillespie said of the Hispanic population. “There are great opportunities for Hispanics in this market. They want the American Dream, and they deserve it.”