Rafael Perez highlighted the impact of having a home on the potential to accumulate generations of wealth during a conversation in a meeting with lawmakers of Congress on financial security in the Latino community.
2022 NAR Fair Housing Champion Rafael Perez, second from right, shares his knowledge in a panel discussion titled “Building a Legacy: How Latino Families Can Secure Their Financial Future.”
Rafael Perez, whom the National Association of REALTORS(r) has named as a 2022 Fair Housing Champion, often recounts his personal family’s experience of discrimination against housing to show how discrimination in real estate could affect the wealth of generations.
Perez remembers that as an infant, his parents were looking for a house for their young family but were stopped from purchasing the property by a realtor who told the family, “This would not be a good place for your kids to grow up.”
This property is today valued at millions.
Perez, an experienced real estate professional at Axia Real Estate Group based out of San Diego, helps Latino families build wealth over generations through home ownership and helps those who were displaced by the development process to return to their neighborhoods of choice. Perez used his experiences to inform his presentation and shared his knowledge with the audience Wednesday at Congress Hispanic Caucus Institute’s 2023 Leadership Conference.
The panel discussion, titled “Building a Legacy: How Latino Families Can Secure Their Financial Future,” also included Luz Maria Vergara, who is the senior vice president of Wells Fargo; John Jones, who is the senior vice president of Nareit; Jose Luis Briones Public Policy Manager at Airbnb Moderator Tonantzin Carmona, a fellow at the Brookings Institution.
Rep. Vicente Gonzalez (D-Texas), who is a member of the House Financial Services Committee, began the meeting by speaking about the importance of homeownership and financial literacy in promoting economic mobility and economic prosperity in Latino families. “We must instill financial literacy early in life,” He emphasized, reiterating the goal that is the focus of NAR Chairman Tracy Kasper’s Ignite, another high school financial literacy program.
Perez highlighted that homeowners enjoy the “freedom and flexibility” that homeownership gives families, allowing homeowners to “lower their costs and increase their income.” Perez added that the process should be further developed to assist families in investing the extra money and getting the full financial benefit.
The moment Carmona requested the participants to outline the issues policymakers need to consider to assist Latino families in becoming wealthy, Housing affordability was discussed first. Perez spoke about the results from an NAR report, which found that the U.S. is short by 5 million units of residential housing, which is equivalent to a $4 trillion in underinvestment in housing. This abysmal shortage affects those who are traditionally unserved and first-time home buyers the most.
“Anything that creates more inventory is where the solution lies,” Perez declared. Perez cited the policies that were enacted within his state, California, regarding zoning and the addition of dwelling units as an example of how the government can construct more homes and create better opportunities for wealth creation.
Perez has a wealth of experience as a mortgage banker, lender, and educator. He sits on the board of directors for the Pacific Southwest Association of REALTORS(r). He is a member of the NAR’s Fair Housing Policy Committee and was the past vice president for the San Diego chapter of the National Association of Hispanic Real Estate Professionals. He also focuses on ingenious solutions for housing supply as a member of the board for Casita Coalition. Casita Coalition.
“There was a historical injustice, and now we need to make things right,” Perez declared. “We should focus on empowering people from the community rather than just sprinkling some equity on it.”