Fox hails U.S. mortgage program for Mexicans

The Associated Press/MEXICO CITY

Over 1,000 Mexicans living in the United States are taking advantage of a program allowing emigrants to obtain a mortgage to buy a home in Mexico, Mexican President Vicente Fox announced Monday.

Fox offered praise Monday for the Mortgage Program for Migrants, throwing the government's support behind the loan program started more than a year ago when several of the country's mortgage providers opened offices in the United States.

Fox said the program, funded by the Federal Mortgage Society, will bring further investment to Mexico and help achieve his goal of getting 600,000 mortgages provided this year.

"It's only fair that migrants receive a reward for the contributions they make day after day," Fox said at the annual meeting of the National Housing Council.

About 372 Mexicans in the United States have already obtained a mortgage for a home in Mexico, and another 872 applications have been made.

Mexico's special purpose financial companies, known by their Spanish acronym as Sofols, have been behind the initiative.

Hipotecaria Su Casita, the second-largest Sofol, has provided about 200 home loans since opening its first U.S. office in September 2003 in Denver.

Eduardo Uranga, who runs the program for Su Casita, said the company hopes to triple that amount by the end of this year by opening offices in Dallas, Chicago and Los Angeles, and through alliances with regional U.S. mortgage brokers. Su Casita recently reached agreements with First Jersey Mortgage Services in New Jersey and Monterey Funding in California.

Uranga said getting the government's formal backing should boost the program's public profile.

"When we started a year and a half ago, one of the most important barriers was that too many Mexicans in the U.S. didn't trust it because it was something new," he added.

Mexico's largest Sofol, Hipotecaria Nacional, has also gained a greater presence in the United States since being acquired last year by BBVA Bancomer, a unit of Spain's Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria (BBVA).

Hipotecaria Nacional already has offices in New York and San Diego, and its Spanish parent company bought Valley Bank in California last year and is completing its acquisition of Laredo National Bancshares Inc. in Texas.

Meanwhile, Credito Inmobiliario, Mexico's fourth-largest Sofol, is participating in the program through offices in Chicago and Houston.

Guillermo Babatz, who heads Mexico's Federal Mortgage Society, said at the annual event that the ever-increasing flow of money sent home by Mexican migrants demonstrates the program's potential.