Banks Redline Minority Communities Again
“The financial crisis has led to significantly reduced access to mortgage credit for all borrowers and communities. In communities of color, however, where the foreclosure crisis has taken an especially severe toll, access to prime, conventional mortgage loans has declined precipitously,” thereport states.
Conducted by the Neighborhood Economic Development Advocacy Project and six partner organizations across the country, the study examined Home Mortgage Disclosure Act data in seven cities, including New York. For the five boroughs, it found that between 2006 and 2008 quality mortgage lending dropped 40 percent in communities where 80 percent or more of the residents were people of color. In neighborhoods where at least 90 percent of the residents were white, lending dropped too, but only 23 percent.
The discrepancy between which neighborhoods were able to refinance loans was even steeper: Refinance loans – the kinds homeowners might use to get out of an unaffordable mortgage
