In the 1960s and into 1970s few Chinese families ventured outside their long-established neighborhoods burgeoning enclave hemmed in between North Beach and the Financial District.

Today, the Chinese community can be found living in virtually every neighborhood in San Francisco. Their presence in Richmond District flats and Visitation Valley bungalows offers visible testimony to the profound impact the Chinese community has had on real estate in San Francisco. Those families should thank the Chinese real Estate Association of America, which is celebrating its 22nd birthday in the Year of the Dragon.

Life wasn't always as sanguine. Many Chinese remember an earlier period with pained nostalgia...a time that is unfamiliar to today's youthful dot-com generation, but should be. The eyes of Charlie Lum have seen a lot since he was a fledgling real estate agent in 1971. That was a time when he found racism as tough as making a sale. Lum worked for a non-Chinese real estate firm and one of his rookie duties was to answer the office telephone when potential clients called. Far too often, white callers would hang up as soon as he uttered his name.

Another obstacle often confronted Lum, who is now semi-retired but maintains his real estate license. Asian families were reluctant to search for housing outside of Chinatown because of racial discrimination... many whites refused to see to Asians. That slowly started to change in the 1970s, however, thanks to stricter application or civil rights laws and as Asian buyers began using sympathetic whites to make purchases for them. In 1977, the Chinese real estate community felt it was time to organize. At the time, there were several hundred Asian real estate agents, and Chinese Americans owned about one-fifth of the real estate in the City. The organizers gathered at a real estate office in the Richmond District. Lum was present. So were Edward Poon, Chee Yee, Johnny Szeto, Sophie Lau, Hebert Wong, and John Y. Wong, who would become the group's first president.

It was an exciting time in San Francisco history. The first wave of post World War II immigrants..who left China to escape poverty and hard times...were rapidly transforming the Richmond and Sunset districts into mini-Chinatowns. Newly arrived "Boat People" from war-torn Southeast Asia were settling in the Bay View, the Tenderloin and the Mission Districts predominantly Spanish neighborhood, where you can nonetheless see Chinese language signs over many restaurants.

The Globalization continues today. A new wave of 20-something and 30-something adults is immigrating...not of desperation who often worked 10 to 15 years or longer to achieve home ownership, members of this well-educated dot-com generation are buying first homes that cost up to $500,000. More than 65,000 immigrants, most of them Asians, immigrated to San Francisco during the 1990's. Chinese Americans have over the years, sometimes by choice, have little voice or influence in the political process. However, as the number of Chinese Americans swelled, the laissez faire attitude changed, and in the second half of the 1990's, the power and prominence of Chinese American voters emerged.

The San Francisco neighbors, Association, comprised mostly of Chinese immigrant homeowners, has fought several high-profile property rights battles. The Chinese Real Estate Association played a major role in beating back proposed City Hall property transfer tax increase and the Proposition U rent control initiative. The association has not always been successful in its battle to protect property rights, but it has always been a voice for the Chinese property owners in the political process. All in all, it's been a momentous three decades of change for Chinese Americans and the Chinese Real Estate Association.