Hector Suarez, 45, spent the last year looking for a home close to Downtown San Diego. The single dentist set his sights on a townhouse that had yet to break ground. It would be Suarez’ second real estate purchase in three years. Having time and experience under his belt made the effort easier. “Patience. Oh yeah, I had to have patience,” he says.

Suarez’s purchase adds to the 39 percent rate of Hispanic homeownership across the county. But Latinos are still lagging significantly behind San Diego’s overall rate of 55percent.

Dali Collins of Eureka Realty spent the past 12 months helping Suarez find his place in Bankers Hill. In the end, Suarez’ townhome came with a price tag of $675,000. While above the norm for most Latinos in today’s housing market, many Latinos are like Suarez, doing what they can to acquire their dream home. Collins, who has more than 10 years of real estate experience, says San Diego’s market is very different than it was a decade ago. “Back then there were so many foreclosures on the market,” she recalls. “The market was so bad, it was hard to make a living.”

While Collins doesn’t cater exclusively to Hispanic clients, she is producing all of her marketing materials in Spanish. She says dealing with the Latino market means more than just translating materials into another language. “A successful real estate agent must understand cultural differences when dealing with Latinos,” she says. “With Latinos you basically have to hold their hand and give them more support, especially with the first-time buyers. Trust is important and for many Latinos, buying a home is really a family affair.”

Collins says it is a misconception that dealing with Latinos means doing all transactions in Spanish. “I haven’t had too many Spanish speaking-only clients,” she says. “In fact, most of my Latino clients speak both English and Spanish.”

Minnie Rzeslawski, owner of 24K International Realty, specializes in the Latino market from South County to La Jolla to East County and counts 95 percent of her clients as Latinos. She and three other agents on her staff are bilingual. The biggest problem facing potential Latino home buyers in San Diego, she says, is a lack of information, not income. “Latinos don’t get enough counseling when it comes to purchasing a home,” she says. “A lot of agents don’t take the time to counsel. We are their only resource sometimes.”

A survey by the San Diego-based National Association of Hispanic Real Estate Professionals revealed the top five obstacles to Hispanic home ownership were lack of knowledge about the process, down payments, affordability, language barriers and unverifiable income.

To tackle some of those issues, Rzeslawski encourages new Latino clients to attend free classes and seminars such as the ones offered at the Community Housing Works in City Heights. Rzeslawski and her staff are among the organization’s volunteer teachers. The classes are designed to help potential home buyers understand the entire purchase process from beginning to end. “If it takes me a week to go over credit issues, I will,” says Rzeslawski. “The house will sell itself, but we need to give our clients options.”

Ernie Reyes, co-founder of the National Association of Hispanic Real Estate Professionals, says more agents, lenders, and professionals related to the field want to tap into the Latino market. Despite San Diego’s soaring real estate prices, Reyes believes it is still possible for Latinos to buy homes, even with the median price at $500,000. Several factors, he says, have to do with money and how lenders are beginning to understand cultural differences between Latinos and mainstream clients.

“We’re a cash society,” Reyes says of Latinos. “Before, they wouldn’t factor in the Latino experience, meaning credit scores for many Latino families were low or nonexistent. Now, more and more lenders are starting to realize they must factor in additional income, like more than one family member contributing to the household, or extra income from second jobs where workers are earning cash.”

More organizations are offering free information in English and Spanish, hoping to help educate not only potential clients, but professionals as well. One of those organizations is the Faith Based Community Development Corp., a North County nonprofit that holds monthly bilingual, free classes for first-time buyers on topics like budgeting and understanding credit. In addition, the agency holds an annual day-long fair during the first week of June to coincide with National Home Buyers Week.

Dan Scott, one of the fair organizers, says the event is designed as a one-stop shopping place for Realtors, lenders, and anyone who wants to better understand the home buying process. “Most people don’t realize there are resources out there, so we are just part of a larger network,” Scott says. “We want to help empower home buyers in the North County. The cost of housing in San Diego is putting potential homeowners out of reach so people need to find ways to close the affordability gap.”

As real estate prices in San Diego continue to soar, prospective buyers like Suarez will no doubt have to dig deeper into their pockets to afford a home. “Don’t get in the market unless you really feel you can afford it,” advises Suarez. “Don’t go in thinking you are going to make a killing on the property. We really don’t know what is going to happen in this market. It could take a turn for the worse and the bottom line is, if you can’t make the payment, it doesn’t matter.”