Despite the pandemic, Latinos drove growth in the homeownership sector for the sixth consecutive year. Next week, NAHREP releases its 11th annual State of Hispanic Homeownership Report, and without giving too much away, the report is a blockbuster. The youth, work ethic, and vitality of the Latino market is burning up the market, and some believe this is only the beginning. Last month, the Urban Institute and Washington DC think tank put out a report that says that Latinos will account for more than 70% of homeownership growth in America over the next twenty years. Yes, you read that correctly…70%! Population growth, household formations, and age are the largest factors, but Latinos have also shown they are willing to migrate to wherever the jobs and affordable housing exist most. Markets like Texas, Minnesota, and North Carolina are seeing some of the largest surges in Latino homeownership. The Urban Institute also predicts that homeownership rates for every other demographic will actually go down over the next twenty years. It makes you wonder what the U.S. economy would look like without Latinos.
Excuse me while I rant, but I’d love to have five minutes with anti-immigrant, anti-Latino fools like Tom Cotton, Tucker Carlson, and Ann Coulter so I could tell them to their faces that they should be on their knees thanking Latinos for what they are giving this country. During the pandemic, while those idiots sat in their ivory towers, millions of Latino front-line workers were working in healthcare, keeping our infrastructure moving, and ensuring our food supply kept flowing. Can you think of anything more patriotic than that?
The only thing that makes our economy different than countries like Japan and those in Europe, where aging populations have left their economies stagnant with no growth in sight, is our Latino sector. Welcome to the New Mainstream.
By definition, unintended consequences are the results of an action different from what was expected or planned. They are often referenced in relation to changes in policies. I have heard the term used for years, primarily related to government policies. Still, I didn’t realize until recently that much has been written on the subject, and most experts believe that there are three categories of unintended consequences:
I once read that sports are a universal language. Regardless of ethnicity or what language you speak, almost everyone speaks sports. No place has that been more evident than the Olympics, where every four years, we are moved by images of athletic rivals from around the world shaking hands and embracing each other in moving displays of sportsmanship.
Happy Easter! The blog will resume on April 7, 2024.