About 250 Hispanic men and women in the military and their families have enrolled in the 18-month-old "Welcome Home" program designed to increase Latino home ownership opportunities.

Sponsored by Freddie Mac and the Mortgage Bankers Association, Welcome Home provides free training for bilingual service men and women in an attempt to increase the number of Spanish-speaking professionals in the mortgage banking industry. Industry leaders believe that more bilingual personnel are needed to handle the expected increase in prospective Latino home buyers.

The program provides a tuition-free, Internet-based training program designed by the MBA to prepare past and present Spanish-speaking members of the armed forces for post-service careers in all phases of the residential and commercial lending industry. The effort seeks to provide an estimated 1,000 new graduates a year for potential careers in mortgage sales, origination, underwriting, servicing, collections, and commercial and multifamily lending.

"We are proud of the men and women who have served this country and are pleased to offer them an opportunity to work in this dynamic industry," said MBA President Jonathan Kempner at the time the program was launched in September 2004.

Freddie Mac, the Puerto Rican Telephone Company, Univision, the Hispanic War Veterans and the National Puerto Rican Coalition are supporting the no-cost program in ways ranging from direct financial support to promotion. Lender participants, which include BB&T, CitiMortgage, GMAC Mortgage and U.S. Bank Home Mortgage, meet with eligible students to discuss potential job options.

"This is a program that addresses the needs of a key segment of the community, those who serve in our nation's military and their families who share the commitments of military duty," said National Puerto Rican Coalition president Manuel Mirabal. "We believe this will advance many bilingual service men and women into careers in the banking industry, helping to improve their economic mobility, increasing Hispanic diversity in the banking industry, and fostering improved banking services to Hispanic borrowers."

According to several studies, the general lack of bilingual information about home buying and mortgage finance is keeping thousands of Latino families from seriously considering home ownership. For example, 84 percent of Mexican-American renters have a strong desire to buy homes, according to a recent survey from the Tomas Rivera Policy Institute at the University of Southern California. But 51 percent are uncomfortable with English and 60 percent say it is difficult for them to find an advisor they can trust and understand.

The initiative is "groundbreaking solution to two important challenges: helping our military's brave men and women pursue rewarding new careers after they retire from active service and helping the mortgage industry bring a new level of opportunity to America's fast-growing Latino community," said Craig Nickerson, Freddie Mac's vice president of expanding markets

Welcome Home is open to all bilingual (fluent in both English and Spanish) active duty personnel, reservists and National Guardsmen and women, and veterans who have received an honorable discharge. To make the effort as accessible as possible to qualified personnel, the MBA maintains a special website to provide convenient on-line course delivery around the clock.

After completing the required course-work and receiving a professional certificate, students will be asked to complete an on-line form to identify the type of job they are seeking, as well as geographical preferences. Lender participants then receive the students' personal information forms and make contact to discuss potential employment options with the graduates.

The Department of Defense Reserve Forces Policy Board is promoting the program, and current outreach efforts include coalition representatives attending job fairs at military bases. Last month, for example, they visited a military a job fair in San Antonio to talk with Hispanic men and women in the military and their family members to consider a career in mortgage banking.

"With an estimated 40,000 Mexicans living in San Antonio and future population projections soaring, the mortgage banking industry needs Spanish speakers to accommodate the significant number of underserved Hispanics buying homes," the MBA's Kempner said. "We know that the military instills a 'can-do' attitude into its men and women that works well in the fast moving, real estate banking field."

Coalition representatives as well as service men and women who are currently enrolled in the program plus and program graduates also were available during the job fair to discuss the difficulties of transitioning to civilian life. Hispanic real estate professionals were on hand, too, to discuss the great need to have bilinguals in the housing sector.

Published: April 12, 2006

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When Lew Sichelman first started writing about housing in 1969, he was the youngest real estate writer in the country. Now, 37 years later, he's one of the oldest -- and most decorated. He has been rated the top housing columnist in the country by the National Association of Realtors as well as by his peers in the National Association of Real Estate Editors. Indeed, NAREE has recognized his work on numerous occasions. One year - due to his advancing age, he can't recall which one - he earned top honors in the annual NAREE Journalism Contest in three out of the four major writing categories. It was the first time one writer has won so many NAREE awards in a single year. Known for his ability to make even the most difficult topics understandable, Sichelman also has been honored by the National Association of Home Builders and the Mortgage Bankers Association. He began providing in-depth coverage of and consumer-oriented information about housing and housing finance at the Washington Daily News, where he was real estate editor. He held that same position for nine more years at the Washington Star, which purchased the News in 1972. The Star, a so-called "writer's newspaper" which also had the misfortune of being an evening paper, was put out of its misery in 1981, and Sichelman, who had begun self-syndicating his column in 1978, decided to become a full-time columnist. Today, his column, "The Housing Scene," is distributed by United Media to newspapers throughout the country. He also is on the staff of National Mortgage News, an independent newspaper which is considered the bible of the mortgage business. And he writes for numerous other publications, including MarketWatch.com, where he answers readers questions once a week, Sports Illustrated (don't ask), RealtyTimes.com, BigBuilder and others. Sichelman is married, the father of five and grandfather of eleven.