4.13.2007

U.S. Latino Purchasing Power? $900 Billion!

Latino buying to shape future (by Brent Hopkins, Whittier Daily News - 4.13.07)

Latinos work hard, have money and spend it, and their vast buying power - close to $900 billion nationally this year - will shape the future of American society, including the housing market, panelists at a business forum said Thursday.

"This is a very hard-working community," said Henry Cisneros, who chaired the program presented by the Tomas Rivera Policy Institute, a nonprofit research organization headquartered at USC. "No one surpasses the foreign-born Latinos when it comes to work ethic."

That work ethic translates into serious dollars. According to data from a recent University of Georgia study cited at Thursday's conference, Latinos will account for $863.1 billion in buying power this year. By 2011, that will swell to $1.2 trillion.

The trick for the businessmen and academics in attendance at the two-day forum, held at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel, is to turn that buying power into things like homeownership and future economic development.

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