Minority home buyers in the U.S. formed the fastest growing group obtaining new home mortgages last year, according to a survey released on Thursday.

According to the report, minority loan percentage in high volume areas combined was three times higher than Caucasian households in the top 20 mortgage growth metropolitan areas. The increase for Hispanic, African American, and Asian loans was up to five times greater.

The 2005 Minority Home Buying Surge report was released by Genworth Mortgage Insurance and Compliance Technologies.

We are now witnessing the positive effects of the growth in immigrant households who want to own a piece of the American Dream, said Michael Taliefero, Managing Director of ComplianceTech. While immigration is part of the story, the lower homeownership rates among African Americans and Hispanics represent pent up mortgage demand that is starting to be filled.

The study defined high volume metro areas as ones which have 1,000 annual loans for all minority groups. The analysis uses Home Mortgage Disclosure Act data from 2004 and 2005 and examined 320 of 388 Metropolitan Statistical Areas in the U.S.

Despite the nationwide cooling in home buying, minorities represented a significantly larger percentage of new purchases in 2005 than they did in 2004, said Kevin Schneider, president of Genworth Financial's U.S. mortgage insurance business.

For the full report, visit:

http://www.genworth.com