Wednesday, July 25, 2007

National Housing News

Striking Racial Disparities in High-Cost Lending

The National Community Reinvestment Coalition (NCRC) released a report this month examining racial disparities in high-cost lending and found that the differences in the number of high-cost loans received by minorities and whites are substantial and persist across all income levels. The authors note that being middle income does not inoculate minority borrowers from receiving high-cost loans; to the contrary, differences widen as income levels increase.

The NCRC finds that in 2005, low-income African Americans were at least twice as likely to receive high-cost loans as whites in 70 metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs).

To address these disparities, the report suggests strengthening the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) to encourage more prime and market-rate lending to minorities, and increasing federal and state enforcement of anti-predatory and fair lending regulations. The full report can be found here.

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