Who is Buying? Diversity Finds A Home

Expanded to include 89 counties, the First American Real Estate Solutions 2003 Surname Study reveals a national pattern of the advancement of ethnic minorities, especially of Hispanic and Asian origin, into the mainstream of American economic life through the purchase of their homes. Homeownership is both a means of entrance and a symbol of membership in the American middle-class. The purchase of a home,whether a first home or a move-up, represents an economic advance for an individual or a family. From the Pacific to the Atlantic, millions of ethnics who were already physically and demographically present are now moving up the economic ladder into homeownership, taking a powerful and enduring economic presence in the life of our society.