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Upward and Mobile

New doors opening for Arizona's Latino Homebuyers.

Real estate agent Renee Espinoza can’t decide what brand of cigar to buy her newest client. Ray Coronado, a 32 year-old electrical engineer, has just purchased a home not far from where he grew up in South Phoenix.

Free cigars have become Espinoza’s trademark sign of appreciation after she makes a sale. She’s been giving away a lot of them lately.

This is not Coronado’s first time buying a home, but he is part a growing number of upwardly mobile Latinos who are closing the deals of their young lives in what experts have described as a historic and ceaseless housing boom in Arizona.

It’s a phenomenon that stretches across the market’s economic spectrum. Middle- and working-class wage earners are flocking to bedroom communities in the West Valley, almost as fast as they can be built. Recent immigrants are buying and renovating homes in the inner city. Housing editions are springing up along Interstate 10 north of Tucson. And Latinos at the high end of the income scale are buying into a luxury home market near the very neighborhoods where they grew up.

For instance, before settling on his $450,000 house near Baseline Road and Central Avenue—once a favorite cruising strip for Latinos of his generation—Coronado had not seriously considered moving back to South Phoenix, a community better known for its working-class barrios. He changed his mind after a friend suggested he revisit the neighborhood. They now live across the street from each other.

“The actual shock came after I visited Talasera,” Coronado says of one of several new upscale communities sprouting up in the area. “I can stand on my deck and look directly across to Camelback Mountain and deep into Scottsdale and see all the multi-million dollar homes that are at the same elevation.”

With South Mountain Preserve as a backdrop, the Baseline corridor is suddenly the place to be. The area has become coveted real estate for retailers. A city library branch recently broke ground nearby. And a new shopping center set to open soon will feature a South Phoenix-first—frappes by Starbucks.

Not long ago, non-residents rarely ventured into the area, unless they were headed for Los Dos Molinos, a popular restaurant. There is affordable housing in the area, but property values are rising in the wake of a buying spree by developers and speculators. Not surprisingly, some worry that long-time residents could soon be priced out of their own backyard.

So where are Latinos—at least those who can afford it—buying homes?

“Wherever they can get the most house for their money”, says Espinoza. West of Phoenix, one-time placid farming communities like Surprise, Avondale and Litchfield Park are seeing the type of growth that a decade ago made Ahwatukee in the Southeast Valley a popular destination for upwardly mobile Latinos—who came to be known as “CIA” (Chicanos in Ahwatukee).

Espinosa says Latinos across the economic spectrum are benefiting from “loan programs that didn’t exist five years ago” but are “making it possible for people to get into homes with little or no down payment, and with smaller mortgage payments.”

Master-planned communities like Rancho El Dorado in Maricopa and Johnson’s Ranch in Queen Creek are attracting Latino professionals, who also are not shying away from pricier historic districts in the Central and North-Central Phoenix corridor.

“Latinos are more comfortable (than non-Latinos) living in areas closer to downtown,” said Espinosa. “We’re not afraid of the diversity of urban living, particularly those who have lived or studied in big cities like Chicago or New York.”

In some cases, Latinos picking revitalized urban neighborhoods to buy or build their homes in order to closer to aging parents or grandparents.

Depending on whose figures you look at, recent estimates of Hispanic homeownership range from 55 percent to 61 percent, though they still lag behind overall homeownership figures of about 70 percent. Experts say that gap will narrow as Latino purchasing power increases.

Another trend: Unlike their parents and grandparents, many of whom have lived in the same homes for 30 or 40 years, a growing number of Latinos are beginning to regard home purchases as a way to grow their money.

For his part, Coronado views South Mountain’s makeover as a worthy investment. “There is a good possibility that my home may double in price. That helps make the risk bearable.