More Hispanics Gain Foothold in Housing Market

She said she had learned that to avoid being cheated, it pays to be well informed. "If you don't read English . . . sometimes they don't explain [things] to you very well," she said.

The home she bought in Lincolnia Hills, a middle-class neighborhood near Landmark Mall in Alexandria, enabled her to expand her child-care business, which brings in more income to pay the mortgage. She rents rooms to friends to make ends meet.

"In my country, I lived in the same house all my life," she said. "The idea of moving from place to place was driving me crazy. I love the stability."

Real estate agents and housing counselors say, however, that a growing number of Hispanics, including low-paid service workers, are buying property not to have a home of their own or for other sentimental reasons. Like many others, they see it as an investment.

"They want to be in the game," said Jesus Moreno, a housing counselor with the Hispanic Committee of Virginia. "They are really eager to make money and move on."

Census figures show that the number of Hispanic homeowners rose in every jurisdiction in the Washington area in the 1990s and that the percentage of Hispanic ownership increased in most. Most Hispanics in the region's suburbs owned their own homes in 2000, with the exception of in the city of Alexandria and in Arlington and Prince George's counties. Census figures show Hispanic homeownership soaring in communities including Aspen Hill, College Park, Rockville, Wheaton, Centreville, Herndon, Hybla Valley, Leesburg, Manassas and Oakton.

Hispanics, the nation's fastest-growing major ethnic or racial group, are being courted aggressively by real estate agents, mortgage brokers and programs for first-time buyers that offer help with closing costs. Ads proclaim: " Sin verificacion de ingresos ! Sin verificacion de documen to !" -- which loosely translates as, "Income tax forms are not required, nor are immigration papers."

Many first-time buyers are making it work the way Vasquez did, by signing on other family members or friends as co-buyers. Some rent every spare room they have to make the mortgage. Others have taken on risky interest-only mortgages to be able to afford a dwelling. Housing counselors worry that unsophisticated immigrants are being lured into bad deals or shoddy housing.

"You turn on the Spanish channels and every time there's a commercial, you see Spanish lenders and real estate agents popping up and saying: 'Buy me! Use me!' " said Oscar Bermudez, who runs first-time buyer classes in Alexandria for Housing Counseling Services. "To pick one you are confident with, that's the hard thing. You have a lot of people out there -- even [some] Latino lenders and agents -- that will commit fraud."

It is much easier to qualify for a mortgage now, but Moreno has had clients who ended up paying far more in upfront costs than is considered reasonable -- seven points, for example.

"We have soap-opera cases here," he said.