Minorities

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MINORITIES/ 24inches/1stjc/mark2nd

By JASON BOOTH

Staff Reporter

There is a quiet real estate recovery going on in many of L.A.’s minority communities, with both prices and sales volume on the rise.

Inglewood, Compton, Carson and Temple City were among the cities with large minority populations that posted increases in both housing prices and sales volume, according to the California Association of Realtors.

Home purchases by Latinos actually dipped last year, however, which experts attributed to several factors, including rising home prices and the attraction of affordable housing in areas like the Inland Empire.

By contrast, Asian Americans comprised 16.2 percent of homebuyers in L.A. County last year up from 15 percent in 1996, and 9.2 percent in 1995, acccording to the CAR.

That growth is reflected in the heavily Asian-American communities of San Gabriel and Temple City, where the volume of home sales rose 23 percent and 45 percent, respectively, between the fourth quarter of 1996 and the fourth quarter of 1997.

Median home prices in those cities rose between 10 percent and 15 percent during the same period, to around $200,000.

Chinese Americans are doing most of the buying, according to Kenneth Um, a broker at RE/MAX Glendale. While other Asian groups have been slowed by financial troubles in Asia, Chinese money from Hong Kong and Taiwan continues to pour in, he said.

Asian-American home-buying trends are very similar to those of the general population. Last year, the median downpayment made by Asian homebuyers was $39,000, roughly the same as Caucasian buyers, according to CAR.

The median for Latinos was $7,0000, while African Americans put down $4,000 on average.

Latinos comprised 17.5 percent of the home-buying population in 1997, down from 26.5 percent in 1996. African Americans comprised 4.5 percent of homebuyers last year, up from 3.8 percent in 1996 but down from 5.8 percent in 1995.

But those percentages don’t reflect the raw numbers of Latino homebuyers. The sharp rise in Asian homebuyers, and an increase in sales in generally non-minority areas like the Westside, helps account for the proportional decline in Latino buyers, said CAR economist G.U. Krueger.

As a secondary factor, Krueger believes that the decline among Latino home buyers could stem from rising prices, making lower-income people hesitant to buy.

“If there are any major increases in prices, we could start to see some affordability constraints entering the market,” he said.

Krueger said he was less certain why the population of African-American homebuyers was down over the past two years. But Namon Wimberly, owner of RE/MAX Real Estate Center in Inglewood, says he believes many African Americans are moving out of L.A. County to places like the Moreno Valley in Riverside County, or Chino Hills in San Bernardino County.

Those communities, he notes, offer affordable housing and a lower crime rate.

At the same time, Wimberly said Latino homebuyers are moving into areas like Inglewood and Compton that were formerly dominated by African Americans.

Wimberly and others say the proportional decline in Latino buyers last year was an anomaly, and that they expect the numbers to rise again this year based on the growth of the Latino population.

Wimberly said he is looking to increase the number of full-time brokers in his office over the next year from the current 20 to as many as 50.

“With the influx of Latinos, the Hispanic market is going to be huge,” he said. “The brokerages are going to have to cater to that.”

“In the poorer neighborhoods, Hispanics are definitely taking over,” agreed Leo Nordine, owner of the independent brokerage Leo Nordine Realtors, which focuses on South Central. “The African Americans are disappearing.”

In some areas with large Latino populations, prices have remained flat but sales activity is increasing. Pico Rivera, for example, posted a 19.1 percent increase in sales volume in the fourth quarter of 1997, compared with the like period for 1996. In Montebello, sales volume was up 33.3 percent for the same period.

“It’s unbelievable,” Nordine said. “I have more houses in escrow than I have active listings. This time last year I had two times more active listings than houses in escrow.”

Short-term figures aside, brokers and economists believe that population growth trends alone mean that Latinos will make up a growing portion of L.A.’s homebuyers. To meet the demand, some of the bigger brokerages have been beefing up their presence in Hispanic communities.

“We are targeting good independents who are well regarded in their neighborhoods,” said Fred Sands, president of Fred Sands Realtors. He said his firm now has more than 200 agents that focus on minority communities, roughly double the number at the start of 1997.

As part of that strategy, Fred Sands acquired the office of long-time independents David and Robert Gayl, whose family has been selling real estate in East Los Angeles for more than 40 years.

That operation has since grown from just five agents to 25, and there are now efforts to open a second office in the area.

Sands said he intends to have 10 offices operating within predominantly Hispanic neighborhoods within the next few years.

RE/MAX Realty is also trying to increase its presence in minority communities. Besides increased advertising in the Spanish-language media, the firm is currently preparing to make its documentation available in 12 languages, including Chinese, Korean and Russian.

It is also making an effort to sign up independent brokers in South Central Los Angeles.

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