Demographic Shifts Bring Major Changes

Melbourne, FL – April 22, 2012 – Catering to multicultural buyers is becoming the new normal in American home sales, reflecting both the surging population of persons of Hispanic and Asian descent living in the United States and the relatively higher buying power their children bring to the home buying market when they become adults. RISMedia, an authoritative Internet source of news for real estate professionals, reported recently in its article, “Multicultural Buyers: The New American Melting Pot” that 2010 Census data revealed the population of people of Hispanic and Asian descent in the United States both increased by 43 percent in the first ten years of the new century. And while most potential buyers are still undecided about the strengthening American home market, those of Hispanic and Asian descent seem disproportionately eager and able to take advantage of bargain home prices available in many areas of the country.

At LifeStyle Homes, we certainly have witnessed the effect of these shifts, and we are very thankful that local employers, seeking highly qualified professionals for demanding technical occupations, have attracted to our area increasing numbers of people born overseas who are eager to live the dream of American home ownership.  We don’t have specific statistics, but perhaps the technical orientation of these people has attracted them to the advantages of our U.S. D.O.E. Builders Challenge guaranteed HERS 60 SunSmart(SM) homes and our truly remarkable Net Zero Energy SunSmartPV(SM) homes.  Any way you cut it, we are glad to have those folks living in Brevard County, and we are proud to have many of them as our customers.

Perhaps because of their enthusiastic devotion to hard work and education as the keys to getting ahead in the land of opportunity, the growth in buying power of households headed by Hispanic and Asian Americans exceeded that of the general American population by more than double in both of the two most recent 10 year Census periods. Going forward, the beneficial effect of having more immigrants and children of immigrants in the home buying market is expected to grow.

While welcome, this increased proportion of multicultural buying activity sometimes brings a challenge to real estate marketing and sales professionals. People from different cultures have different attitudes about and different practices in buying homes. A big dose of mutual respect and tolerance goes a long way in smoothing the process for both buyers and sellers.  “It’s a fascinating process of learning from one another”, says Jake Luhn, CEO of LifeStyle Homes. “One thing we have learned for sure”, Luhn continues, “is that when we make friends with people as motivated as many of our Hispanic and Asian buyers seem to be, we have made strong friendships that last a very long time.”

It’s a beautiful thing.