Not everyone pictures a white picket fence when they think of their dream home. Fernando Pages Ruiz has learned that, working with buyers who are immigrants. He’s a homebuilder, who lives in Longmont (he’s originally from Argentina). Early on in his career, he noticed that immigrant home buyers were remodeling as soon as they moved in. So he decided to find out what they were changing, and adapt his designs. Culturally customizing homes could become a big business. An Hispanic realtor group estimates that immigration reform could lead to as much as 5 billion dollars in new home sales and spending.
[Main photo: Residents in a multicultural neighborhood hang their country's flag oustide their homes.]
[Center photo: Contractor Fernando Pages Ruiz (left) stands on the flat roof he built for a Sudanese client, Abdelhafiz Gumeel (right).]
[Right photo: A Vietnamese immigrant cooks dinner in the garage.]
