National Association of Hispanic Real Estate Professionals Attracts Fortune 500 Sponsors

Will steadily rising interest rates and a possible housing bubble squeeze Hispanics out of the housing market?

This week business leaders from the real estate, housing and finance industry and 2000+ real estate professionals from around the nation that serve the Hispanic market will weigh in on this topic and others related to homeownership at the 5th Annual Hispanic Marketing Convention & Expo at the Hilton New York (Oct. 14-17) at 1335 Avenue of the Americas.

Hosted by the National Association of Hispanic Real Estate Professionals (NAHREP), this year's convention includes discussions on a range of topics that affect Hispanic homebuyers including:

Predatory Lending: Will proposed predatory lending rules really protect Hispanics and other vulnerable home buyers?

Mortgage lending to immigrants: How the market is changing to accommodate foreign-born borrowers?

Loans for Hispanic home buyers: Are aggressive new loan programs really a saving grace for underserved consumers?

Faith-based community initiatives: Do they really work or are they a quagmire of red tape for practitioners?

And a host of tips-related workshops

With forecasts that 2.2 million Hispanics will buy homes by 2010, practitioners attend the event to get practical tips on how to work more effectively with the nation's fastest growing consumer niche. "This is no longer the emerging market," said NAHREP Chairman Frances Martinez Myers. "Hispanics will soon become the majority segment of first-time homebuyers - which makes it a business imperative for companies and practitioners to know how to best serve them."

This is the fifth year NAHREP has hosted the event and the size and scope of the convention reflects the market's growing interest in Hispanic homebuyers. In a few short years the non-profit trade association has grown from a few hundred members and a handful of local sponsors to 14,000 members, 40 affiliate chapters and sponsorship support from Fortune 500 companies like Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Bank of America, CitiMortgage, Chase Home Finance, Countrywide, New Century Financial, Genworth Financial and others.

Recent studies suggest that the Hispanic homeownership rate will rise 20 percentage points over the next five years as the next generation of Hispanic homebuyers enters its peak home-buying years. Modest gains in the Hispanic homeownership rate suggest that the array of programs and initiatives from the industry are having an impact. Most certain is the continued trend of marketing campaigns, bilingual services and Hispanic-centric products from the industry as it braces to handle the wave of Latino homebuyers in the future.

The Hispanic Marketing Convention and Expo is the real estate industry's premier event for Hispanic and non-Hispanic real estate professionals that work closely with the underserved community or want to learn how to break into this market. Part convention, part symposium part trade expo, this year's schedule features keynote comments from top-ranking officers from CitiMortgage, Chase Home Finance, First American and PMI Mortgage Insurance. Other keynote speakers include Mia Mendoza of Mendoza Group, a Hispanic marketing company, Deborah Rosado Shaw, author of "Dream BIG!" and renowned playwright Luis Valdez.

What are people saying about mortgages today:

Rates on 30-year mortgages edged down last week to a seven-month low. Mortgage-giant Freddie Mac reported Thursday that 30-year, fixed-rate mortgages fell to 6.3 percent, down slightly from 6.31 percent two weeks ago. It put rates at the lowest level since they were at 6.24 percent the first week of March.

Bank of Hawaii, Central Pacific Bank, Territorial Savings Bank and Wells Fargo Home Mortgages all cut their 30-year mortgage rates to 5.75 percent this week.

Most people think of a mortgage as a means to an end. After all, you buy a house, not a home loan. But a mortgage is much more than the path to homeownership. It is a financial instrument that must be managed, just like any other financial investment.