Improving Homeownership Opportunities for Hispanic Families: Language, Agglomeration, and Hispanic Homeownership

This paper investigates the degree to which language barriers contribute to well-known Hispanic-white gaps in homeownership that have been documented in numerous previous studies; as of the fourth quarter of 2005, the Current Population Survey indicates that 76 percent of white non-Hispanic families owned homes, but only 50 percent of Hispanic families. This paper's primary hypothesis is that low rates of homeownership in the Hispanic community create a self-reinforcing mechanism that contributes to this large disparity. This study also examines the degree to which a given Hispanic household is more likely to own a home if the family previously lived in a neighborhood populated with a greater concentration of Hispanic owner-occupiers.