Wells Fargo Home Mortgage recently announced its support of the goals of the National Association of Hispanic Real Estate Professionals’ Hispanic Wealth Project, which seeks to triple Hispanic household wealth over the next decade. Wells Fargo’s goals over the next 10 years include a projected $125 billion in mortgage originations and a goal of $10 million to support a variety of initiatives that promote financial education and counseling for Hispanic homebuyers. In continued recognition of the importance of hiring and retaining a diverse workforce, Wells Fargo also plans to increase the number of Hispanic home mortgage consultants on its sales team.
“Homeownership is a vehicle through which many people build wealth and financial stability,” says Brad Blackwell, head of portfolio lending for Wells Fargo Home Mortgage. “Homebuying and its downstream benefits can help improve neighborhoods, local businesses and the overall economy. As the nation’s leading home mortgage lender to racially and ethnically diverse homebuyers, including Hispanics, we support NAHREP in this important mission and want to demonstrate our efforts to do more to increase homeownership to these communities.”
The NAHREP Hispanic Wealth Project Blueprint focuses on three component goals to facilitate Hispanic wealth creation: a 50 percent or greater rate of U.S. Hispanic homeownership, a 50 percent increase in the first-year success rate of Hispanic-owned businesses, and a 25 percent increase in the number of Hispanic households owning non-cash financial assets such as stocks, bonds, mutual funds and 401(k) accounts.
NAHREP is the nation’s fastest-growing Hispanic market-focused real estate housing industry trade association with more than 20,000 members across the country.
“We are extremely pleased to see Wells Fargo’s support of the Hispanic Wealth Project with new and existing programs that align with the project’s goals,” says Jerry Ascencio, chairman of the NAHREP Foundation. “We look forward to seeing the positive impact on local communities and the continuation of our long standing relationship to advance sustainable homeownership for Hispanic-Americans.”
Diverse Segments Business Strategies Help Consumers Achieve Homeownership
Supporting the Hispanic Wealth Project is part of the larger work of Wells Fargo Home Mortgage to drive lending for minorities across the credit spectrum, first-time homebuyers and low- to moderate-income customers. The diverse segments business strategy focuses on four areas to help these groups achieve homeownership: increasing diversity of Wells Fargo team members, including Home Mortgage Consultants; increasing the company’s presence in diverse communities; providing products, processes and programs that support diverse homeownership; and working with referral sources like real estate agents and nonprofit credit counseling agencies.
“Wells Fargo Home Mortgage has the resources to support the reach of the Hispanic Wealth Project’s goals,” says Cerita Battles, head of Diverse Segments for Wells Fargo Home Mortgage. “We want to seize the opportunity to help address challenges in income and credit policies, and provide access to homebuyer education and counseling to increase consumer confidence among minorities regarding the homebuying process.”
For more information, visit www.nahrep.org.
