The Center for Public Integrity, January 18, 2022, Home lending remains unequal
The National Community Reinvestment Coalition, tapping federal data, found that Black and Latino borrowers were still receiving loans to purchase homes in 2020 at lower rates than white borrowers.
And the boom in refinancing touched off by falling mortgage rates in 2020 disproportionately benefited homeowners identifying as white, Asian Indian or Chinese, distributing unequally the benefits of lower payments.
From land redistributed largely to white Americans in the 1800s to redlining, displacement of communities of color for highway construction and bias in current-day lending, discrimination has had compounding effects on the assets of generations of families. That makes it harder to buy a home, a key way many families increase their net worth.
NCRC, digging into mortgage data for 2018 through 2020, found that Black home buyers had less home equity when they received their loans than all other groups: just under $27,000 on average, compared with $79,000 for white borrowers.
“They are building wealth, but they’re not building wealth at the same rate as wealthier households and more affluent neighborhoods,” said Joshua Devine, NCRC’s director of racial economic equity.
The impact of past discriminatory policies is still baked into home values today, Richardson noted.
“This is another example of a symptom of long-term segregation,” he said.
