This goes to show if you take the opportunity away, they will go.

http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/news/nation/14739683.htm

Posted on Sun, Jun. 04, 2006
Decline in Latino home buying seen as effect of new state law

Cox News Service
ATLANTA - Home buying among Latinos in metro Atlanta has slowed significantly in recent months amid jitters over immigration reform, say real estate agents and lenders who cater to the Spanish-speaking community.

The cooldown is an early sign that a 2-month-old Georgia law intended to reduce illegal immigration could be having an effect.

"There's no question that there's a panic in the Hispanic community," said Raymond Amengual, a lender with AHM Mortgage. "The problem is not so much their immigration status as the new laws that make them think they might not be able to work."

Illegal immigrants buy homes with Social Security numbers that don't belong to them or with individual tax identification numbers from the Internal Revenue Service.

Amengual says eight of every 10 of his clients use the tax IDs. He's averaging three loans a month this spring, down from 10 a month last year.

Real estate agents who cater to buyers with tax IDs report similar drops.

How much the pause in home-buying among some Latinos will affect the national real estate market is difficult to tell. Housing industry professionals say much of the future growth in their industry hinges on minorities and immigrants, legal and illegal, because the Anglo population is not expanding as fast.