Hi, I'm Erica Pandy and welcome to Axios Recap, where we dig into one big story.

It's Wednesday, October 20th, and we're focused on Latino homeownership.

Almost 50% of Latinos in the U.S. owned a home in 2020, according to a report from a group

monitoring U.S. Hispanic wealth creation. That's up 4% from when the report began in 2013.

Years after the Great Recession, Latinos are now flexing their financial muscles and buying

homes around the nation from Los Angeles to Phoenix and Houston.

That's a key factor in building lasting personal wealth in America.

But Latinos are still 2.3 times more likely to be in forbearance, and 1.5 times more likely to be delinquent on payments than white borrowers.

In a moment, Axios reporter of Russell Contreras on the uptick in Latino homeownership

and the financial troubles Latinos are experiencing.

We're now joined by Russell Contreras, Axios' race and justice reporter.

So Russell, what drove this big increase in Latino homeownership?

Well, we don't know exactly, but we do know that Latinos are increasing their

homeownership rate to nearly 50%. And this comes years after that great recession. This is the

downturn that resulted in the number of Latinos losing their home. So now there's been a rebrand.

A few years ago, the homeownership rate for Latinos was at 43%. So now it's at 48, 49%.

This is a result of Latinos flexing their financial muscle and buying homes, especially

in areas like Los Angeles, Albuquerque, Phoenix, Houston, places where we had struggled with homeownership rates, but now it's on the rebound.

And let's take a step back here. I mean, why is homeownership among Latinos important right now?

Well, homeownership in the U.S. is viewed as a key factor for building personal wealth,

and Latinos are narrowing that gap. But we have to remember that we're

still lag behind our white counterparts. For example, the homeownership for white Americans

...