Miami Mayor Diaz ticked off the reasons why he is so secure: Favorable interest rates. Aging baby boomers looking to move to a warm climate. And the foreign buyers - 36 percent of South Florida's real estate is bought by people outside of the United States.

Toronto is a hot spot for immigration. The reason that the cost of living is higher in these large north eastern cities is because more people want to live/work there. There is diversity, art, culture, not to mention JOBS. How many corporate head offices are in Miami?

Have you ever been to Toronto? Its no colder than New York, or Cleveland, or Boston, or Chicago. So are you saying that real estate in all these places will crash because everyone is moving away to warmer climates?

I dont really understand what your point is.

And of course there is SOME culture, and art in Miami. I'm just saying there is more in Toronto. But thats really besides the point.

Key Facts

In 1997, 42 per cent of all new immigrants to Canada chose Toronto as their destination.

There are more than 90 different ethnic groups in the Toronto Census Metropolitan Area (CMA) and over one million non-English or French speaking people. The top six are European (997,180), East and Southeast Asian (488,350), British (457,990), Canadian (311,965), South Asian (291,520) and Caribbean (167,295).

Safety

Toronto is a remarkably safe and clean city in a remarkably safe and clean country. Even though Toronto is Canada's largest city, it is sixth in the level of violent crime, with a lower crime rate than both of Canada's other large cities — Vancouver and Montreal.

Crime Rates: 1999 (Per 100,000 people)

Source: Statistics Canada, TBOT, DOJ, FBI

Homicide Rank Robbery Rank Break-In Rank
Washington D.C. 45.5 1 670.6 5 971.9 22
Saint Louis, MO 37.8 2 811.3 3 2,282.7 1
Atlanta, GA 34.5 3 983.0 1 2,069.0 2
New Orleans, LA 33.7 4 580.1 7 1,194.1 15
Kansas City, MO 24.8 5 553.7 9 1,923.3 4
Chicago, IL 23.3 6 743.8 4 1,102.1 17
Milwaukee, WI 21.1 7 532.7 10 1,098.3 18
Dallas, TX 17.5 8 583.7 6 1,802.2 5
Phoenix, AZ 17.3 9 311.6 16 1,299.4 12
Miami, FL 16.9 10 824.8 2 1,965.1 3
Hartford, CT 15.8 11 576.6 8 1,162.2 16
Fort Worth, TX 13.5 12 290.7 18 1,507.7 8
Houston, TX 13.4 13 464.6 13 1,376.8 10
Oklahoma City, OK 12.1 14 229.5 20 1,733.7 6
Los Angeles, CA 11.7 15 397.9 15 594.2 26
Buffalo, NY 10.4 16 477.2 12 1,434.6 9
New York, NY 9.1 17 490.6 11 550.0 27
Seattle, WA 8.4 18 305.1 17 1,202.2 14
Boston, MA 5.5 19 440.8 14 610.0 25
San Diego, CA 4.7 20 150.3 23 544.7 28
Vancouver, BC 2.8 21 217.1 21 1,600.8 7
Winnipeg, MB 2.2 22 267.7 19 1,235.5 13
Edmonton, AB 2.2 23 136.7 24 1,017.7 20
Montreal, PQ 2.0 24 193.9 22 1,312.4 11
Ottawa, ON 1.5 25 104.8 27 883.0 23
Calgary, AB 1.4 26 108.8 26 1,013.5 21
Toronto, ON 1.3 27 115.1 25 611.9 24
London, ON 1.2 28 56.1 28 1,074.1 19

# Mortgage lenders are designing programs aimed at undocumented immigrants. Real estate agents also see a huge untapped market.

By Anna Gorman, Times Staff Writer

Each week, Pedro Morlet knocks on doors in the Bay Area, looking for illegal immigrants.

Morlet isn't an immigration agent. He's a real estate agent, and he's scouting for business.

"Do you want a house, work and pay taxes but don't have a Social Security number?" reads his flier, written in Spanish and tailored to his potential customers. "We can help you LEGALLY!"

Across the country, particularly in Texas and parts of the Midwest, hundreds of illegal immigrants have bought homes using special lending programs that bypass the need for a Social Security number. Now, with backing from some of the country's largest financial institutions, this newest effort to tap customers for the real estate market is moving to the nation's largest concentration of illegal immigrants — California.

As buyers begin to queue up, real estate is becoming the latest arena to highlight the often-bizarre contradictions of American immigration policy.

Advocates of tighter controls on immigration oppose the idea of illegal residents buying homes here. Lending money to illegal immigrants encourages others to cross the border, they say.

"They have no right to own property in the United States because they have no right to be here in the first place," said Diana Hull, president of Californians for Population Stabilization.

Legally, that's not quite true. Unlike some countries — Mexico, for example — the United States generally does not restrict foreign citizens from buying real estate.

But for years, because qualifying for a mortgage required a Social Security number, the only way for an illegal immigrant to do so was by using a false number. In addition, such immigrants often were rejected or overlooked by legitimate lenders, leaving them vulnerable to fraud.

Lenders have a powerful incentive to find ways to get around those barriers: tens of thousands of potential customers. The National Assn. of Hispanic Real Estate Professionals estimates that more than 216,000 undocumented immigrants, including many who have been in the country for decades, could buy homes if they had better access to the market.

Despite their undocumented status, many prospective buyers earn steady incomes, face little risk of deportation and are desperate to become homeowners. Their purchases would amount to millions of dollars in mortgages.

"You have gainfully employed people who have been stuffing money in the mattress for a long time," said Mary Mancera, spokeswoman for the association. "There are quite a few who have been working and saving money and raising kids and going about their lives and want to achieve that next step, but haven't been able to because of the barriers."

Silvia Avalos, a hairstylist, and her husband, Jose Luis Avalos, a busboy, are among the people Mancera is talking about. They were tired of spending their money on rent each month but didn't want to use fake Social Security numbers to buy a home.

After friends told them they could buy legally, they found a two-bedroom condo northeast of San Francisco for $280,000. They moved in as soon as escrow closed.

"We saw it as an investment," Silvia Avalos said. "While you are here, you have somewhere to live that is yours. And if you return home [to Mexico], you can sell it."

Another prospective buyer, Aaron Sanchez, was pre-approved for a $200,000 loan after taking a class sponsored by ACORN, an advocacy group for the poor, on how to make offers and apply for mortgages. The 32-year-old illegal immigrant from Oaxaca, Mexico, has worked at the same furniture company in the San Gabriel Valley for 14 years. He wants each of his two children to have a room. It is a luxury, he knows, that will be hard to afford.

"I think I can find a house," Sanchez said, "but a small house."

The opportunity to get people like the Avalos and Sanchez families into the market begins with the IRS, which is happy to collect peoples' taxes, regardless of their immigration status.

Nearly a decade ago, the IRS began giving out Individual Taxpayer Identification Numbers so people without Social Security numbers could pay taxes. Since then, more than 8 million applicants have received numbers, and about 2 million are used annually on tax returns.

The IRS knows illegal immigrants are using the numbers to get mortgages.

"We don't have control over whatever the taxpayers do with the numbers other than filing a tax return," spokeswoman Irma Trevińo said.

In addition to the ID numbers, immigrants must show that they have been in the country, worked and paid taxes for at least two years in order to get mortgages. Because many do not have credit scores, they must prove their good credit through such documents as utility and cellphone bills, rent receipts, bank statements and paychecks. The interest rates and loan costs are in line with those of buyers who have Social Security numbers.

So far, the trend has begun slowly in California: Only about 50 houses and condominiums have closed escrow.

One obstacle is the same as that facing any buyer in the state — high costs.

Many illegal immigrants cannot make the down payments or prove they earn enough to pay a mortgage in the state's pricey markets. Those who have been able to find affordable homes have bought in places such as Bakersfield.

"It hasn't been as successful as we expected it to be," said Felix Harris, Los Angeles program manager of ACORN. "The prices keep escalating."

Another factor is the lenders' low profile. Citibank, for example, has been offering loans to illegal immigrants in California under a pilot program since September. But it has not advertised widely and wouldn't discuss details with a reporter. It has relied largely on ACORN and individual immigrants and real estate agents to get out the word.

"Citibank is the largest financial institution in the world," said Gary Acosta, a co-founder of the Latino real estate group. "They are interested in the business opportunity. They think it is the right thing to do. But they are probably not interested in getting involved in the public debate that's taking place right now."

Acosta said that also, the bank probably wants to test the loans before advertising and opening the floodgates.

The lenders' reticence means some real estate agents don't know that the loans are available. Victor Campos, a real estate agent in San Fernando, said he often turns away illegal immigrants.

"As far as we know, if they don't have papers, the lenders won't even touch them."

Some banks are reluctant to take the risks involved in the illegal-immigrant market. "If someone were to get deported, what happens?" said Cynthia Mendoza, an account executive with Bank of America. "It's a loss to the bank."

In addition, large underwriters such as Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac aren't buying the loans, so the banks must keep them. A spokesman for Fannie Mae said the company recently reviewed its policies at the request of several lenders but decided not to make any changes, citing "complex and evolving" U.S. immigration laws.

But other financial institutions say the risk is worth taking.

They are being urged on by one of the nation's chief banking regulators, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Eager to guard against predatory lending practices, the FDIC is encouraging banks to reach out to the Latino population — both documented and undocumented. The loans based on tax identification numbers are one way to do that.

FDIC officials predict that despite the slow start, the loans will take off in California, with its huge illegal-immigrant population.

"It happened in Chicago," said FDIC spokeswoman Linda Ortega. "And it will happen in Los Angeles."

One bank that has gotten into the market is Fifth Third Bank in Cincinnati. "We recognized it as a business opportunity," said Bill Schumer, a vice president of marketing at the bank. "It's appealing to a market that is growing dramatically."

Fifth Third Bank started issuing the loans in November after hiring bilingual loan officers. The bank is reaching out to customers through churches and community organizations.

One of those customers, Gerardo Vega, bought a three-bedroom home in Indianapolis.

"I feel like I deserve to have a house because I do what everybody else does," said Vega, an illegal immigrant who installs drywall for a living. "I pay my taxes."

In Northern California, real estate agent Morlet has helped four undocumented immigrants buy homes legally. Morlet, a U.S. citizen originally from Mexico City, said he understands his clients' desire to own property in the United States and to buy it through legitimate lenders.

"I live in an area where a lot of people get [defrauded] by people who don't have any scruples," he said.

Now that loans are available, Morlet faces the challenge of finding homes his customers can afford. When he comes across a deal, he must work hard to beat other bidders. The mortgages take much longer than average and require several more steps.

But his clients, Morlet said, are willing to wait.

Broward's future is 'minority majority'

Lured by sunshine, jobs and palm trees, more blacks migrated to Broward last year than to any other county in the United States.

BY ERIKA BOLSTAD, NATALIE P. McNEAL AND TIM HENDERSON

ebolstad@herald.com


Jacinta Jones gladly traded Georgia's peaches for Broward's palm trees. The 27-year-old decided to make the move from Atlanta to South Florida last year with her 7-year-old son.

''I originally planned to move to Dade County because I fell in love with Miami,'' said Jones, who now lives in Sunrise. ``But in Broward, the schools are better, the people are calmer, and the landscaping better than anywhere else.''

Jones was part of a wave of migration that brought more new black residents to Broward than to any other U.S. county last year, according to Census Bureau figures released this week.

''Because I'm still young, I wanted to be close to Miami for the club scene,'' said Jones, who works as an assistant to the president at a Fort Lauderdale advertising firm. ``But I wanted to be in the area of it, not the center of it. Broward is ideal.''

The Census estimates that 17,900 blacks moved to Broward in the 12 months ending July 1, 2004, making the county's population about 25 percent black. Broward's increase was much larger than that of the closest runner-up, Gwinnett County, Ga., with 13,338 new black residents.

Miami-Dade saw a much smaller increase in its black population, 3,085 people.

VARIED REASONS

Demographers say they believe that the boom in Broward's black population is largely from Caribbean immigrants, especially those from Haiti. But beyond immigrants, many black residents come to Broward for the same reasons that the county has long attracted newcomers: good job opportunities and even better weather.

''It's all becoming browner and blacker,'' said Keith Clayborne, publisher of the black-themed Broward Times newspaper. ``You see the small businesses starting, the beauty salons, the typical kind of small businesses when you have immigrants. And you're getting people who are retired who are coming from corporate jobs from the Northeast.''

NOT SURPRISING

The growth in the county's black population is no surprise to anyone who studies demographics in Broward County. The increases first began showing up in school enrollment figures, said Bill Leonard, a senior planner for Broward County.

The increases were so noticeable that the county's planning staff updated its 2002 population projections this spring to reflect the increasing number of black Broward residents moving in -- as well as the future growth expected in the black population.

''It's something we've been seeing glimpses of,'' Leonard said.

MORE LIKE DADE

Within five years, he and other demographers expect that Broward will become what's known as a ''minority majority'' county, where Hispanic and black residents outnumber white, non-Hispanic residents. That trend was seen long ago in Miami-Dade, thanks to heavy Hispanic immigration.

But now, it's Broward's turn to mirror the trends of Miami-Dade County and states like New Mexico, California and now Texas -- all places where the combined minority population outnumbers the overall white population.

FLED INSTABILITY

Some of the immigrants fueling Broward's growth, like Lania Ambroise, were escaping unstable political conditions in countries like Haiti.

Ambroise, 38, moved to Broward from Haiti last August after her political activities made her fear for her life.

She fled with her children, now ages 7 and 5, to her sister's home in Miramar. Originally, she planned to move back to Haiti, but her home was burned down. Her husband came last month to join her in Miramar.

Now, Ambroise is spending her time studying at Broward Community College and working part time as a certified nurse's assistant. She wants to become a registered nurse. For Ambroise, there was nothing optional about her family's migration.

''I don't think I can go back to Haiti, not just yet,'' Ambroise said.

Clayborne said he suspects that many of his new black neighbors in Coral Springs are part of a growing black middle class in Broward that comes from Miami-Dade as well as from outside Florida. That includes people from cities like Atlanta that already have a high concentration of black residents.

JOBS, POLITICS

There are plenty of reasons for Broward County to be a primary destination for blacks, said Marvin Dunn, an associate professor of psychology at Florida International University.

Broward's expanding economy provides job growth that allows blacks to find good-paying jobs, Dunn said.

''The county is much more of a political base politically and economically for blacks,'' said Dunn, who has written books about the history of blacks in Florida. ``That translates into privilege, jobs and opportunities.'

Since Hurricane Andrew, much of Broward's growth has come from people who once lived in Miami-Dade County. Many of those people are what are known as secondary immigrants -- people who first moved to Miami-Dade when they arrived in the United States, then shifted to Broward for jobs, housing or schools.

MOVED FROM N. DADE

Laurie Johnson and her husband, Joseph, had lived in north Miami-Dade County for 16 years. Johnson, 43, and a native of the Bahamas, said that after all of her longtime neighbors moved away and the neighborhood changed, the family decided in May 2004 it was time to move, too.

The family upgraded from a three-bedroom, two-bath home to a five-bedroom, four-bath home in Miramar's Huntington subdivision, close to Interstate 75 and the turnpike. The highways give her an easy commute to her office in downtown Miami, where she works as a construction analyst. Her husband, a corrections counselor, has a 15-minute drive to work.

LIKES THE SCHOOLS

Also, Johnson felt comfortable in Broward sending her 16-year-old, Anwar, to a public high school, something she didn't feel comfortable with in Miami-Dade County.

''We were amazed that I-75 was just a hip and a hop away,'' Johnson said. ``And I'm very pleased that I don't have to pay private school tuition anymore.''

Herald staff writers Steve Harrison and Yamiche Alcindor contributed to this report.