For years I have been talking to corporations about the growth and profit opportunity of the Hispanic market. Factually speaking, Hispanics are the youngest and fastest-growing demographic segment in our economy. In the housing sector, Hispanics account for about 50% of the homeownership growth in America. The numbers are big and the opportunity is clear. In a nutshell, it makes good business sense for large companies to focus on Hispanic consumers. In my years running NAHREP, this has been my message to real estate firms, mortgage companies, and home builders.
However, I now realize that persuading big companies to invest more resources to reach Hispanic consumers is good, but not enough. When a company sells more of its products to Hispanic consumers, it helps them grow and make more profit, but when the overwhelming number of employees, shareholders and contractors of that company are not Hispanic, the money flows away from Hispanic communities exacerbating a wealth gap that already is untenable. The Hispanic Wealth Project Blueprint shows more information.
Public and large private corporations should be financially incentivized or even legally required to hire executives, appoint board members, and procure contractors in proportion to the overall population and the customers they sell to. For years, there has been a push to get large companies to diversify their boardrooms and suppliers, but the progress has been painfully slow. Making it a requirement may sound extreme, but the wealth gap in America has become exponentially worse during the pandemic and more than anything else, it threatens our system and our quality of life. Besides, doing something like this in not unprecedented, there are laws on the books that were designed to address this sort of problem in the past.
In banking, we have a law called the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA). It essentially states that banks are required to make loans and reinvest the money they take in deposits back into the communities from where those deposits originate. Banking used to be a local business, but as banks became larger and national banks started to emerge, smaller, low- and moderate-income communities suffered when their capital was deployed to less diverse and wealthier regions of the country. Banks who score poorly on their CRA report card may be restricted from growing or making acquisitions. Banking is a heavily regulated business and because deposits are insured by the FDIC, the government has a great deal of leverage to enforce CRA.
It will be a little harder to impose these rules on non-banking companies, but not impossible. Because of CRA, the template already exists. Today, Hispanics are 18% of the population, yet hold less than 4% of the board seats, and senior executive positions for Fortune 500 companies. The data on procurement is harder to measure, but it is estimated that Hispanic-owned firms received less than 2% of the contracting opportunities from large companies. These numbers are unacceptable, and we are now at a point where drastic measures to address this issue may be required.
The data tells a powerful story: Latinos are driving economic growth in America. If Latino Americans were a standalone country, we’d be the fifth-largest economy in the world, and without Latino homebuyers, the number of homeowners in America would have declined in 2025. So why doesn’t it feel like we’re winning? In this episode, I talk about the gap between growth and perception, why we still don’t have enough strong voices shaping the national conversation, and why purchasing power alone is not enough. Growth matters, but wealth matters more. This is a conversation about leadership, visibility, and what it will really take for our community to turn momentum into lasting power.
A bill known as the 21st Century Road to Housing Act recently passed the Senate with rare bipartisan support, and it raises an important question: could housing be the issue that brings Americans back together? In this episode, I talk about why housing has become too urgent for either party to ignore, how affordability is forcing elected officials to actually work together, and why this moment matters so much for our community. At a time when division feels constant, housing may be one of the few issues serious enough to cut through the noise.
A recent housing study confirms what many of us in this industry have already felt: Latinos are playing an increasingly vital role in keeping the housing market strong. In this episode, I break down why that matters so much. Latinos accounted for more than 100% of the net increase in U.S. homeowners in 2025, and when you combine that with our workforce participation, youth, and growing economic influence, the picture becomes clear — Latino buyers and workers are helping keep both housing and the broader economy afloat. This is a story of momentum, contribution, and the growing importance of our community in shaping America’s future.