This article originally appeared in the June 2025 edition of MortgagePoint magazine, online now.
Lenders take note: Hispanic Americans are purchasing homes at historic levels—and this often-underserved community now leads all racial and ethnic groups in homeownership growth. But as these buyers work to make their homebuying dreams a reality, they face volatile interest rates and affordability constraints.
For lenders, this presents both a challenge and an opportunity. Hispanic Americans are showing a strong and growing readiness to pursue homeownership, and lenders need to deliver the right education and education strategies to make the kind of authentic connections necessary to support and grow along with this vital demographic.
In a recent conversation, Jason Madiedo, Co-Founder and CEO of Panorama Mortgage Group, shined a light on this topic and explained how it’s not a sudden change or passing trend. And Madiedo is no stranger to this specific issue: 70% of PMG’s business comes from the Hispanic American market.
“If anyone is looking to serve this specific community, it has to be a 360-degree approach,” he told me. “It needs to extend throughout the organization, from top to bottom and from the bottom up. Leaders need to have a real passion for understanding their needs and show their dedication to meeting them with the right messages and offers.”
To truly support Hispanic American homebuyers, lenders must respond with tailored, empathetic outreach that builds trust and keeps borrowers engaged as they navigate the homebuying process. Here’s how.
Breaking It Down From a Lender’s POV
The surge in Hispanic American homeownership is rooted in broader demographic growth and improving financial conditions within the community. Young Hispanic families are driving this shift. They are seeking stability, long-term financial growth, and spaces to nurture their families.
In 2024, Hispanic homeownership reached a record 9.8 million households, including 238,000 new households added in the prior year.
For mortgage lenders, this trend presents a substantial opportunity. Not only can they tap into a rapidly expanding market—they can also provide meaningful support to a demographic that has historically trailed others in homeownership rates. Especially in regions with high populations of Hispanic Americans, lenders have a unique chance to support an underserved market.
But the path forward is not simple. Hispanic Americans are not a homogeneous group. They represent a varied population with diverse financial needs, cultural differences, and lived experiences. To best serve this market, mortgage lenders need to invest more in their outreach and customer engagement strategies with tailored communications that support the development of strong, authentic relationships.
“Many Hispanic American households are multigenerational, which can shape their financial priorities and homebuying decisions,” Madiedo explained. “There are a lot of moving parts in the familial unit of a Hispanic consumer. Lenders need to recognize that, build that knowledge into their customer relationships, and demonstrate that understanding in the customer engagement.”
Leading With Empathy (and Strategy)
Understanding your customer has always been fundamental to strong customer relations and sales. But developing this empathetic approach is often easier said than done. Especially when it comes to guiding customers through purchases as significant as a house, it is critical to ensure that your understanding of each customer’s needs goes well beyond “They want to buy a house.”
Diversity is not just a box to check—it is an opportunity to better serve communities. But many lenders fall short in ensuring that they are prepared to serve the various demographics in their communities.
Madiedo put it bluntly: “If you just hire Hispanic salespeople thinking that’s all you need to attract Hispanic homebuyers, you are going to be frustrated.”
And he’s absolutely right. While shared backgrounds can enhance client relationships, token gestures don’t replace the genuine connections made possible by a company-wide commitment to understand and meet the specific needs of every homebuyer.
Other lenders limit their outreach to generic messaging that ultimately misses the mark. Today’s homebuyers expect communications to be hyper-personalized and relevant. This is as true for Hispanic Americans as it is for any other demographic. Failure to meet these expectations means missing the chance to build trust and long-term loyalty.
“You need to take a 360-degree approach,” Madiedo said of the right leadership mindset. “You need to be fully committed or not at all.”
Lenders Must Combine Empathy With Strategic Execution
Lenders should view the customer journey holistically, identifying points where potential buyers disengage. This genuine, comprehensive approach enables lenders to adjust and enhance their outreach for better outcomes.
Consider a prospective buyer exploring homeownership while dealing with affordability challenges. Generic outreach will not resonate. The buyer may feel the messaging is meant for someone with fewer financial constraints and eventually fall out of the funnel. Later, when they are ready to buy, they may choose a lender who showed up consistently during their journey.
Conversely, if the same buyer receives ongoing, tailored content—like educational resources on credit improvement, debt reduction, or savings strategies—they will have spent the runup to their big purchase gradually building trust with you. They will remain engaged and come to view you as a reliable guide and homebuying resource, so when they’re ready to buy, you’ll be the natural choice.
This is equally true for buyers in more typical situations—they need nurturing as well. Post-pandemic, the average homebuying cycle has lengthened from three to six months, to six to nine months, or longer. To stay competitive, it is crucial that lenders keep customers continuously engaged with communications and resources that speak to their specific needs.
Strengthening Engagement With the Right Technology
At this point, many lenders might be asking: How can I deliver this level of personalized, sustained outreach without a large team or unlimited resources?
The answer lies in modern customer engagement platforms. The right technology can significantly enhance both the reach and authenticity of your outreach—but only if it is equipped with tools that tailor customer journeys according to highly specific, targeted criteria.
“We needed a platform that could take customer relationships, internalize the specifics, and turn that information into outreach and marketing campaigns that work,” Madiedo said of his mindset when choosing a customer engagement tool. Specifically, lenders should seek platforms offering three key capabilities:
- Automated journeys: Marketing and sales teams can build out omnichannel customer journeys that leverage automation to continuously nurture customer relationships without the need for human intervention or coding knowhow.
- Heightened data intelligence: In addition to a 360-degree view of customer data across your database, the right tool will enable a deeper look into customer intent signals (getting married, changing jobs, etc.) that can set off customized outreach flows.
- Advanced customization: Communications can be highly customized based on language preferences or self-identified level of financial literacy for maximum impact.
Stronger Relationships Lead to Smarter Growth
Hispanic Americans are achieving their homeownership dreams in greater numbers than ever before. Mortgage lenders have a unique chance to support this encouraging trend while also boosting their businesses.
But to fully realize this opportunity, lenders should look closely at how current customer journeys align with emerging needs. Without a strategic, empathetic approach to customer engagement, lenders may miss the chance to build lasting relationships with a new generation of homeowners.
Now is the time to evolve using a deep understanding, smart strategy, and the proper tools capable of making it all happen.
