Census: Growth in hispanic population, shifts in housing

JEREMY HOBSON: Now let’s get to those new census numbers. The Hispanic population in the U.S. went from about 35 million in the year 2000 up to 50 million in 2010. That’s a 43 percent rise and Latinos now make up 16 percent of the U.S. population.

Let’s dig into the numbers now with our regular Friday guest Chris Low chief economist at FTN Financial. He’s live with us, from New York. Good morning.

CHRIS LOW: Good morning

HOBSON: So Chris, as an economist looking at these numbers, what do you see?

LOW: Well, you know because I’m an economist it’s always the first thing I think about when I look at a story like this, what’s the economic motivation driving it. And you know what’s interesting is the two big trends that pop out from these census numbers — the increase in the Hispanic population and also the movement of the population toward the south and the west — were driven by the boom in housing in the last decade.

HOBSON: And the housing bubble did bust, as we all know so well. Does that mean that these numbers have sort of gone out of date?

LOW: Well yeah I suspect what it means is that these trends probably crested 3 years ago. We know from census estimates particularly that the male Hispanic population has fallen in the last couple of years, because it’s so hard to find jobs here.

HOBSON: Chris Low, Chief Economist at FTN Financial, thanks for your analysis this morning.

LOW: You’re welcome, thank you.