More than 40,000 homes are up for sale in the area, many of them foreclosures. The numbers are enough to scare away even the most informed homebuyer.
But some real estate agents, such as Antonio Matarranz, a real estate broker and president of Avangard Real Estate Services Inc., are undaunted.
He's still trying to get one message across to many Latinos thinking of owning a piece of the American dream: There's never been a better time to buy a home.
Interest rates are falling again, and there's a house to fit anybody's pocketbook.
But, as always, there are a few warning signs to watch for.
Mr. Matarranz, who has been in Dallas for 28 years, had developed a large Hispanic clientele whose numbers have shrunk over the past two years and even more so in this economic downturn.
He said there's no doubt about the widespread fallout from the subprime meltdown.
Dallas has some of the highest rates of foreclosures in the country, and Texas is among the states with the highest share of subprime loans, according to the Consumer Federation of America.
A good chunk of those loans in Dallas -- about 22 percent -- were made to Latinos.
"This is a tsunami for the mortgage industry," said the 57-year-old. He believes it may ultimately wash predatory lenders out of the system.
But many of his customers these days have close friends or relatives who have also felt the onslaught of the floodwaters. And not just from the subprime meltdown.
Many Latinos have been caught up in dueno a dueno (owner-to-owner) sale schemes.
"Today, it's not just predatory lenders whom you have to watch out for," he said. "It's also predatory investors."
These are the ones who buy a house as an investment, make a few repairs, and hoodwink a buyer into believing they will own the home after a lengthy period of making payments. For some Latinos, their dream of owning a home became a financial pesadilla (nightmare).
Going through a professional who understands the entire home-buying process and federal and state regulations can prevent such scenarios, Mr. Matarranz said.
Others show up at his office and the first question they ask is, "Is my mortgage loan going to have a fixed interest rate?"
He will tell them there's no reason it cannot be fixed. Too often, first-time homebuyers have been seduced by lenders who promised them low-interest rate mortgages that ended up ballooning by as much as 40 percent.
These stories have circulated through the proverbial grapevine and many potential homebuyers may be in a panic these days. Many have become hesitant to follow through on their long-held desire to buy a home.
For some, it's also been a question of saving enough for a down payment. They may not know that mortgage assistance programs were created and funded by the federal government through municipal governments and nonprofit agencies to help remove this obstacle.
Mortgage assistance programs can provide loans to low-income families of up to $12,000 for down payments and closing costs.
But Mr. Matarranz says federally funded programs, like the Enterprise Foundation with the city of Dallas, often end up with an excess of funds because not enough people applied for them.
"The system and the tools are in place to help people own a home," he said. "There are just not enough people who are knowledgeable about the system and its tools to walk the homebuyer through the process."
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