Thread: Many Immigrants Who Prospered in the Boom Now Face Crisis

The Dream Endangered
Many Immigrants Who Prospered in the Boom Now Face Crisis

By Alejandro Lazo
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, May 23, 2009

Oscar Arias saw in the real estate boom an opportunity to retire home to Nicaragua a wealthy man after fleeing the Sandinistas with nothing to his name in the 1980s.

He spent years in the United States toiling as a dishwasher, a chef and a construction worker. In 2001, he founded a residential and commercial renovation company, Potomac Restoration, out of his Woodbridge home. He bought two additional houses during the boom and planned to sell them and return to Nicaragua with a nice cushion, he said.

But the housing bust has left the 54-year-old on the brink of ruin. He has worked only a month this year. Two of the houses he bought during the boom are facing foreclosure. Unpaid bills pile up in his living room office.

Hispanic immigrants such as Arias benefited broadly from the construction boom and rising home values, which created jobs and nurtured flourishing local economies. Newcomers flocked to places such as Prince William County in search of well-paying, easy-to-find construction jobs. Established immigrants found work as real estate agents and loan officers, founded construction companies, and opened restaurants and retail shops catering to the influx. Now many are facing the consequences of the bust.

Earlier this month, the Pew Hispanic Center released a report that found that higher percentages of immigrants in U.S. counties correlated with elevated foreclosure rates. The report also singled out local economic conditions, the cost of housing, and a greater incidence of subprime lending to blacks and Hispanics as key factors. Prince William was among those counties with a high foreclosure rate and a sizable immigrant population that the center studied. And stories such as Arias's illustrate how closely immigrant fortunes were tied to the real estate market.

As he tells it, Arias fled the communist Sandinista government in March 1985, cramming into a small sailboat with 11 other men and setting off for El Salvador. After being detained for two weeks in that country, he made the trip north with the help of a coyote through Guatemala and Mexico and into the United States, crossing the border to Texas and walking to Corpus Christi. From there, he flew to Dulles International Airport and spent his last $30 on a cab to a relative's home in Columbia Heights. The next day, he began work as a dishwasher.

Arias worked his way up to chef, and his employer sponsored a visa. His wife and children joined him. In 1991, he moved from Falls Church to Woodbridge in search of a cheap place to live. He bought his first home for $115,000 on a small cul-de-sac off Route 1 called Rosedale Court and soon began working construction jobs. His neighbors were mostly retired military members, and he was the only Hispanic on his block, he said. He struggled to feed his family, but he enjoyed his work, his life in the United States, and the peace and quiet of his community. He gained full U.S. citizenship in 1999.

His Washington journey mirrored one of the region's most significant demographic shifts in recent decades. As growth exploded in the outer suburbs, immigrants moved outward from the District and the inner suburbs. Counties such as Loudoun and Prince William became destinations for recent immigrants.

By 2006, the immigrant population of Loudoun and Prince William counties had grown to more than 14 times its 1980 level, according to a recent study by the Brookings Institution's Metropolitan Policy Program. In Prince William, immigrants made up 22 percent of the county's population in 2006, up from just 4 percent in 1980. Meanwhile, the geographic origins of Prince William's immigrants also changed, with people from Latin America making up 54 percent of the immigrant population in 2006, up from 28 percent in 1980. That put the county in the top 12 in the nation for Hispanic growth, according to the study.

"Immigrants were drawn to these areas because of the economic activity," said Audrey Singer, a senior fellow with Brookings and the author of the study. "A lot of Latinos were moving to these places."

Arias said the growing economy meant new opportunities. One of his first jobs as an independent contractor was renovation work at the General Services Administration headquarters in downtown Washington. His company grew quickly as he found work throughout the region painting houses, remodeling basements, building terraces and refurbishing a hotel in Herndon.

He employed a crew of Hispanic immigrants as workers. He bought two vans and a new Dodge Ram truck. He opened an office in the nearby town of Dumfries.

With real estate prices soaring, he began investing on the little Woodbridge cul-de-sac where he lived. He refinanced his first house to buy the second in 2003 for $220,000, and refinanced the second to buy a third for $400,000 in 2006. He had planned to sell them all -- perhaps to his sons -- and then return to Nicaragua or perhaps settle in Florida for retirement. His debt load did not initially concern him, as he had no trouble making his payments.

Then the work dried up.

He laid off four workers at the start of 2007. As the year progressed, he whittled his crew down to only his two sons and his nephew, closed his office in Dumfries, and let go of his secretary. Things deteriorated last year, and he does not expect 2009 to be any better.

"It will be even worse," he said, speaking in Spanish.

Arias said he has not made a payment since November on his newest house, in which he lives with his wife, Alicia. His lender has given him until Monday to pay $2,955, or the home will be foreclosed on. He is also behind on an investment property that could be foreclosed on as early as June 15 if he does not make two payments totaling $4,925. He is two months behind on his first home, owing $3,600, but his lender has not yet threatened to foreclose. The only property he has rented out is the original home. He rents it to one of his sons and a worker.

Although experts say immigrants were drawn to the epicenters of the housing boom by the high growth and easy employment, they are not sure what role the newcomers played in the subsequent wave of foreclosures. The same Pew report that found a correlation between immigrants and elevated levels of foreclosure found that the rate of homeownership among immigrants nationally is holding up better than it is for native-born Americans. Hispanic immigrants have not experienced a reversal in homeownership, according to the study. The main factor, the report said, is the process of assimilation -- in which immigrants tend to earn more and secure homeownership at a greater rate the longer they stay.

The typical immigrant in 2008 is more highly assimilated than his or her counterpart in 1995, according to the study, having spent more years in the United States and being more likely to be a U.S. citizen. That has helped to steady the homeownership rate.

"Whatever data we are presented with, you have to be careful of the cause-and-effect," said Rakesh Kochhar, an economist with Pew and an author of the study. "We do know from other work that immigrants were drawn to areas that now are showing greater signs of economic depression."

Arias hopes to remain a homeowner, but his odds of keeping the properties are not looking good.

To deal with the pressure, he climbs into his towering Dodge Ram three days a week and makes the 40-minute drive from Woodbridge to the First Pentecostal Holiness Church in Manassas. There he attends a boisterous Spanish service led by the Rev. Misael Mejia, a robust, voluble pastor who calls his church Iglesia del Avivamiento Pentecostal.

Mejia, himself a mortgage loan officer, preaches that the nation's tough economic times are the direct result of a country that "turned its back on God" and that a firm Christian faith is the only thing that will keep things from getting worse. Arias says he finds solace in the message.

"We can lose everything but God," Mejia said from the pulpit last Sunday as Arias sat in the second row, listening intently. "Cars, houses, jobs, we can lose everything, but nothing can keep us from God."

"Hallelujah," Arias exclaimed.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/co ... s_business

Awwww *tear*tear*

He profited from hiring other illegal aliens and now he's crying? Sorry, just can't sympathize. There are millions of immigrants who came here and will retire here, just like the Americans they've become.

What makes him so special?

As he tells it, Arias fled the communist Sandinista government in March 1985, cramming into a small sailboat with 11 other men and setting off for El Salvador. After being detained for two weeks in that country, he made the trip north with the help of a coyote through Guatemala and Mexico and into the United States, crossing the border to Texas and walking to Corpus Christi. From there, he flew to Dulles International Airport and spent his last $30 on a cab to a relative's home in Columbia Heights. The next day, he began work as a dishwasher.

Arias worked his way up to chef, and his employer sponsored a visa. His wife and children joined him. In 1991, he moved from Falls Church to Woodbridge in search of a cheap place to live. He bought his first home for $115,000 on a small cul-de-sac off Route 1 called Rosedale Court and soon began working construction jobs. His neighbors were mostly retired military members, and he was the only Hispanic on his block, he said. He struggled to feed his family, but he enjoyed his work, his life in the United States, and the peace and quiet of his community. He gained full U.S. citizenship in 1999.

It's stories like this that show what a sham our immigration system is. IMO, someone who comes here illegally should never be eligible to obtain legal status while residing illegally within the United States! Furthermore, the so-called success stories like this definitely encourages more illegal immigration. Only folks who enter the country legally should be eligible for future citizenship.

Originally Posted by MW

It's stories like this that show what a sham our immigration system is. IMO, someone who comes here illegally should never be eligible to obtain legal status while residing illegally within the United States! Furthermore, the so-called success stories like this definitely encourages more illegal immigration. Only folks who enter the country legally should be eligible for future citizenship.

Sounds like he got a green card under the NACARA amnesty, it was sold as giving legal status to political refugees fleeing Sandinista Communist rule, but most of those who benefited came for better wages, and many were Communists themselves!! I agree we should never have any type of amnesty.

Sounds like Karma finally caught up with Arias.