Focus areas
Homeownership
Expanding Latino Access to Homeownership and the Wealth It Creates.
Homeownership remains one of the most important pathways to household and intergenerational wealth in America. LatinoProsperity works to ensure that Latino families have a fair opportunity not only to buy a home, but to enter and sustain homeownership on terms that create financial security, equity, and lasting wealth.
WHAT WE DO
Research that exposes gaps in Latino home lending.
LatinoProsperity’s Mapping Access and Exclusion research examines who receives home-purchase mortgages, which financial institutions are serving Latino borrowers, where access is expanding or falling behind, and whether families are entering homeownership on terms that support long-term wealth building. Our research began in California and will begin to examine other states with large Latino populations.
Holding lenders accountable for serving Latino homebuyers.
Our research has examined the performance of California’s largest banks, mortgage companies, and nonbank lenders. The 2025 data reveal a striking divide: among the state’s top 25 home-purchase lenders, traditional banks made just 10.6 percent of their loans to Latino borrowers, compared with 30.1 percent among nonbank and mortgage-company lenders.
Across the broader market, mortgage companies provided more than 83 percent of all home-purchase loans received by Latino borrowers in California.
Looking beyond access to the quality of homeownership.
Getting a mortgage is only the beginning. LatinoProsperity examines whether Latino families enter homeownership with the equity and financial cushion needed to build and preserve wealth.
In 2025, Latino mortgage applicants had an 8.6 percent denial rate compared with 5.9 percent for White applicants. Latino borrowers who successfully purchased homes entered ownership with average equity of approximately $89,000, compared with nearly $288,000 for White borrowers, while also facing higher average borrower charges.
These disparities show why closing the homeownership gap requires attention to both the quantity and quality of mortgage access.
Mapping where opportunity and exclusion persist.
Our research shows that Latino access to homeownership varies dramatically across California. Latino borrowers received more than 40 percent of home-purchase loans in the Inland Empire and Fresno in 2025, but only 12.5 percent in San Francisco and 9 percent in San Jose.
By examining individual metropolitan markets and lender performance, LatinoProsperity identifies where progress is occurring and where barriers to ownership remain deeply entrenched.
Turning research into action.
LatinoProsperity brings lenders, housing organizations, policymakers, regulators, researchers, and community leaders together to translate data into solutions.
Our work encourages financial institutions to strengthen their Latino home-lending strategies and helps policymakers identify opportunities to expand affordable, sustainable pathways to homeownership and wealth creation.
WHERE WE’RE GOING
We believe the nation’s economic future depends in part on whether Latino families can own a meaningful stake in it.
As Latino households become an increasingly important part of our country’s workforce, economy, and housing market, the goal cannot simply be more mortgages. It must be more families achieving sustainable homeownership and the lasting economic security that comes with it.
Research Report
Mapping Access and Inclusion: Latino Home Purchase Lending Across CA’s Major Markets
For Latino families, homeownership remains the most effective pathway to building wealth and narrowing long-standing economic gaps, with roughly one-third of Latino household wealth tied to equity in a primary residence.
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