His agent, Pedro Morlet, said the 30-year fixed rates were crucial for clients who bought homes using their taxpayer identification numbers.
"Their mortgages stayed the same," he said. "They continued with the low payments, while a lot of people saw their mortgages go up $800, $1,200 or $1,500" a month.
So even if the buyers owe more on their mortgages than their homes are worth, they can still afford the payments.
Advocates for tighter immigration controls oppose the idea of illegal residents buying homes in the United States. They say it only encourages illegal immigration.
"I don't believe they should be here to begin with," said Rick Oltman, spokesman for Californians for Population Stabilization. "So I don't believe that they should be . . . going to college on the taxpayer dollar, getting jobs or buying homes."
At least one Chicago bank started issuing taxpayer identification loans in 2000, and several other banks followed. The majority of the loans were issued in the last few years, at the same time that subprime loans hit their peak.
Many of the mortgages nationwide came out of a partnership between Citibank and Acorn Housing, a nonprofit group that helps the poor. Citibank said the taxpayer identification loans have some of the lowest delinquency rates among all affordable-lending programs.
"We believe that it has been a very successful program in terms of delinquencies," said Mark Rodgers, vice president of public affairs for Citi consumer banking. But Rodgers said it was too early to gauge foreclosure rates, because nearly all of its loans are less than 2 years old.
The Hispanic National Mortgage Assn. underwrote more than 2,000 such loans, but only about 20 were in California because of the shortage of affordable housing.
Leonardo Simpser, the association's chief executive, said the loans did "extremely well." In addition to strong pride of ownership among buyers, Simpser attributed the success to the underwriting process. The association accepted nontraditional credit history but was very strict with income requirements.
Despite the success of such loans, availability of new mortgages is starting to drop off. Mary Mancera, spokeswoman for the National Assn. of Hispanic Real Estate Professionals, said this is the result of the larger credit crunch.
"If people with traditional credit history are having a hard time getting money, it stands to reason why these have dried up," she said.
