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Special Reports
Hispanic Marketing
First American Corp. Hosts Finance Literacy Summit
WASHINGTON -- A trend of providing financial education along with aggressive marketing to Hispanic markets appears
to be in full swing across the country with many of the major institutions taking the lead.
The First American Corp., one of the country's largest providers of economic data,
hosted its first Hispanic Real Estate Finance Literacy Summit here, which brought together industry and corporate
leaders addressing ways to best serve the underserved Hispanic households.
"For well over a year we have worked diligently to bring together those who
share a common vision of closing the nation's homeownership gap," said First American vice president of market
development, Landon V. Taylor, addressing "the trusted advisors" attending the event.
"This is only the first step in working together to open the doors of financial
opportunity for all Americans. [Especially] those most in need of real estate financial literacy," the First
American Corp. vice president of market development said.
Such advisors included the National Association of Hispanic Real Estate Professionals,
the National Council of La Raza, League of United Latin American Citizens, United States Hispanic Chamber of Commerce
Foundation, the National Hispanic Caucus of State Legislators and AmeriDream Inc.
"We want to create specific, tangible materials, solutions that educate Latino
families," Mr. Taylor said.
"There are basic things those who have bought their first home don't know.
We want to show them how to leverage equity to build wealth," the First American Corp. vice president of market
development said.
Predatory lending is an important topic of conversation that was brought up by
First American constituents at the summit.
Often, Mr. Taylor said, there is inflated information listed on closing documents
that doesn't make sense to the consumer.
"It can say $10,000 in closing costs rather than $4,000. First American offers
a guaranteed settlement bundle, which guarantees closing costs up front," the First American vice president
of market development said.
"New technology solutions play an important role in dealing with serving
the Latino marketplace," he said.
"National City Mortgage and AmeriDream offer downpayment-assistance programs
that will help substantially borrowers who need more help to close or they don't have enough money for a downpayment,"
Mr. Taylor said.
Operation Hope is a literacy program designed to help Latinos and African-Americans
as part of First American's emerging markets initiative.
With counseling offices across the nation, the program helps consumers and teaches
them about financial practices, banking, interest and the importance of credit history.
First American Corp. maintains from recent studies that as the nation's fastest
growing ethnic group, by 2009, Hispanic-Americans will have a combined buying power of over $990 billion "and
the potential to impact residential real estate more than any other single demographic group in the United States
during the next decade," according to the company.
Other data show that only 50% of the nation's Hispanics currently are homeowners,
compared to about a 75% homeownership rate among white Americans, First American Corp. said.
Reasons include limited access to prime mortgage credit, the complexity of the
mortgage lending process, a general lack of understanding of the homebuying process and predatory lending, according
to the company.
The solution and primary focus of the effort by First American Corp. and the aforementioned
organizations is financial education.
Following the partnership between Microsoft and First American Corp. made in March,
First American said it will renew the existing financial literacy website "Latino Finanzas" (www.msnlatino.com).
The site was developed as a personal finance guide for Hispanics, which is available
in English and Spanish.
First American Corp. has plans to update it and is searching for a co-developer
who would help renew the site's content.
"First American [Corp.] is clearly taking a leadership role in helping explain,
simplify and increase access to homeownership," said National Association of Hispanic Real Estate Professionals
chairman and president Gary Acosta.
The National Association of Hispanic Real Estate Professionals is a group seeking
"to increase the Hispanic homeownership rate by empowering the real estate professionals that serve hispanic
customers."
The organization seeks to accomplish this mission by: "providing a meaningful
forum in which members can express their opinions and exchange ideas with people across all segments of the real
estate community, creating a political action committee (PAC) that supports the legislative interests of Hispanic
real estate professionals, sharing information that enables members to adapt to industry changes influenced by
advancements in technology, supporting the greater Hispanic community in its efforts to achieve representation
in government regulatory issues related to real estate, and empowering Hispanic real estate professionals through
educational tools and programs that teach members to understand and effectively handle the cultural distinctions
of their clients."
The National Council of La Raza, which also participated in the financial literacy
summit as an advisor, describes itself as "the largest national constituency-based Hispanic organization and
the leading voice in Washington, D.C. for the Hispanic community."
Summit advisor the League of United Latin American Citizens has as its stated
mission "to advance the economic condition, educational attainment, political influence, health and civil
rights of the Hispanic population of the United States."
Information about the other summit advisors previously mentioned can be found
on the Web at: ushcc.com, nhcsl.com and ameridream.org.
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