Guild Leaders Hope To Help Hispanic Homebuyers Through New Partnership

By KIMBERLEY HAAS

Leaders at Guild Mortgage have partnered with the National Association of Hispanic Real Estate Professionals as part of their commitment to diversity and inclusion.

The association is dedicated to advancing sustainable homeownership for the Hispanic community in America with a network of over 40,000 professional members and 100 local chapters nationwide.

Jorge Montoya, a branch manager at Guild in Reno, Nevada, recently sat down with The Mortgage Note. He said the key to improving Hispanic home ownership is education.

“We’ve really focused on educating the Latino clientele about it’s not just getting a mortgage, but it’s getting a mortgage with a plan, and what is that plan? Is this going to be a forever plan? Is this going to be a starter home to get you into the next thing? And that, in my opinion, is how we have earned trust, because we’re giving more than what we’re called to do,” Montoya said.

NAHREP named six loan officers from Guild Mortgage in its eighth annual Top 250 Latino Mortgage Originators Report for 2022.

Sponsored by Freddie Mac, the report recognizes the top-producing Latino mortgage professionals across the United States. Montoya was the top Guild Latino loan officer with 514 transactions. 

The U.S. Census Bureau’s Current Population Survey/Housing Vacancy Survey showed that in 2021 the Hispanic homeownership rate increased to 48.4 percent.

That’s an addition of 657,000 new Hispanic owner households since 2019.

Despite this growth, there are barriers Hispanics face when it comes to buying a home, Montoya said.

He explained that the Hispanic community relies heavily on FHA financing.

“In the last two years, the FHA buyer and the VA buyers were the most discriminated against nationwide because there was this super crazy demand. So then the seller was saying, ‘I don’t want the FHA buyer. I don’t want the VA buyer,’ but here’s the question I would ask you now. The seller is generally not a real estate expert so why do they think FHA and VA buyers are not the best buyers?” Montoya said.

Census data shows that in 2019, the Hispanic homeownership rate was 48.1%, but 65.3% for Hispanic veterans. VA loans allow qualified buyers to purchase a home with no down payment, no mortgage insurance, access to the industry’s lowest average rates, and more flexible credit guidelines.

Montoya said it is a misconception that FHA and VA buyers are weaker buyers than those who qualify for conventional financing.

Researchers at the Urban Institute in Washington D.C. predict that the net growth in the number of homeowners from 2020 to 2040 will be entirely among people of color, especially Hispanic homeowners.

Hispanic homeowners will grow by 4.8 million, homeowners of other races (mostly Asian homeowners) will grow by 2.7 million, and Black homeowners will grow by 1.2 million. The total number of white homeowners will decline by 1.8 million.

Victoria Garcia DeLuca was selected to be Guild’s first vice president of marketplace diversity strategy to lead the company’s initiatives to promote equity and inclusion in lending.

Her tasks include partnering with the National Association of Hispanic Real Estate Professionals, the National Association of Minority Mortgage Bankers of America, and other industry minority groups.

“Our partnership with NAHREP is vital to growing our impact in the Hispanic community and by joining the efforts NAHREP is driving, Guild can amplify its work to reach and support Hispanic homebuyers with the information, education, and loan programs they need to realize their homeownership dreams,” DeLuca said in a recent statement.

With more than 4,000 employees and over 250 retail branches, Guild has relationships with credit unions, community banks, and other financial institutions. The company services loans in 49 states and the District of Columbia.

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