Jim Park and Yangsook Ku. Photos by Trevor Williams

Stewart Morris and Zhou Ding

A national real estate trade association that seeks to promote home ownership among Asian-Americans launched its Greater Atlanta chapter at a gala Aug. 23.

The Asian Real Estate Association of America, or AREAA, educates housing-related professionals who serve Asian Pacific American communities around the country.

The organization was founded in 2003 and now has 12,000 members across 38 states.  Its Atlanta chapter was created in May but was officially inaugurated at the gala.

AREAA seeks to help Asian homebuyers overcome the linguistic, cultural and knowledge barriers that cause lower Asian home ownership rates in the U.S. relative to other ethnic communities. 

The decision by AREAA to set up a chapter in the Georgia capital reflects the need to serve a thriving Asian population here, said Jim Park, the association’s national CEO and president.

“The Asian community has been an important part of this community and has contributed to this important city,” Mr. Park said a press conference preceding the gala.

This flies in the face of the stereotypes that Asians only live in cities like Los Angeles and Washington, he said.

“People don’t realize that the Asian community has built a really significant footprint,” he added, saying that some people in California were surprised to hear that he was traveling to Georgia to speak to an Asian group.

According to a study AREAA commissioned and the University of California, Los Angeles completed, Georgia has the 14th highest percentage of Asians as a proportion of the total population.

In the Atlanta statistical area, three-fifths of the Asian population (including naturalized and non-citizens) is foreign born, while a quarter of Asian households are “linguistically isolated,” the study said.

Mr. Park said Asians represent one of the fastest-growing communities in the U.S. and have a combined purchasing power of $700 billion but rarely make their voices heard in the political sphere, a fact that the association hopes to change.

Yangsook Ku, the president of the Atlanta chapter, described home ownership as part of the American dream, noting that the day of the gala was the 45th anniversary of the Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I have a dream” speech. 

She praised the “community spirit” of the 275,000 Asian Pacific Americans living in Georgia and said that real estate professionals must band together in this time of economic crisis to emerge from it better off than when it began.

Emily Fu, a 32-year Atlanta resident and the executive director of the Atlanta chapter, echoed Ms. Ku’s comments, saying that professionals at the gala must be ready to serve consumers when markets rebound.

“It’s been a tough time—there’s no doubt about how hard it’s been in the past two, three years—but we’ll turn around eventually,” she said.

Mr. Park said the Atlanta chapter will be instrumental in providing the on-the-ground, localized knowledge and advocacy that keep the national organization relevant.

“Having a national organization is meaningless unless people can touch and feel the organization on a daily basis,” he said.

Bank of America and Wells Fargo Bank representatives commended the local chapter for its activities and spoke about the growth of the local Asian population and their banks’ efforts to reach it.

Stewart Morris, chairman emeritus of Stewart International and chair of the executive committee of Stewart Title Co., called home ownership the “backbone of the American democracy.”

Mr. Morris’ companies are subsidiaries of Stewart Information Services Corp., a 115-year-old real estate information and transaction management company with 9,500 offices throughout 50 states and some 60 countries.

At the press conference, Mr. Morris talked about the global economy and the development of the Asian community in his native Houston, where the Stewart companies are based.

“It’s so welcome to watch what the Asians are doing, accomplishing, not just talking, but accomplishing,” he said, noting his excitement at watching China put on its spectacular Olympic ceremonies.

Mr. Morris mentioned Delta Air Lines Inc.’s flight to Shanghai and said he wished Houston would get its own nonstop route to China.

Next to Mr. Morris sat Zhou Ding, China’s deputy consul general in Houston.  His consulate has jurisdiction over the entire Southeast, including Georgia.  Consul General Qiao Hong has visited the state on at least eight occasions but could not attend the gala.

Mr. Zhou expressed excitement about the flight and about Atlanta’s growing relationship with China.

“Every time when I’m here in Atlanta, I feel that this is an amazing city, a very energetic city, and every time I come here I feel very excited,” he said.