black…MYstory

As I think about the housing crisis, I can only think of the words of one of my favorite talk show host, Joe Madison, saying that black people are “undervalued, underestimated and marginalized.” You see, for many years, members of the Congressional Black Caucus have been railing against predatory lending. Of course, their warnings went unheeded. Now, we stand on the edge of financial catastrophe in this country, largely fueled by a lot of bad home loans — with a disproportionate amount of them made to people of color.

However, the question that’s not really been pursued in the mainstream press is “where minorities steered into bad loans when they could have otherwise been offered more conventional loans?” An article I read causes me to think that this was very likely the case.

In September, the Federal Reserve released a study that found 52.8 percent of African-Americans got a high-cost home loan when they refinanced in 2006, compared to 37.7 percent of Latinos and just 25.7 percent of whites in the same year.

A similar study by the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, known by its acronym ACORN, in September found the same pattern even when income was equal.

According to ACORN, upper-income blacks were 3.3 times, and Latinos 3 times, more likely than upper-income whites to have a high-cost loan when purchasing a home in 2006.

“I keep hoping one day I’ll do a study where race doesn’t play a part,” said Liz Wolff, author of the ACORN study.

“But clearly, there is a racial bias,” she added.

So, the foreclosures climb and more and more Americans are losing their homes. But, we have to ask, how many minority families are going to lose their homes because they were steered into loans by people who felt that it was okay to, basically, rip off people of color.

Popularity: 34% [?]

Check the temperature! Hell must have frozen over — I find myself agreeing with someone in the Bush administration.

Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson had some strong words and dire warnings in relationship to current housing crisis. Paulson warned that the government and the financial industry should provide immediate help for homeowners who are at risk of foreclosure before the rates increase on their adjustable rate mortgages.

However, he also said a couple of things that I found particularly heartening. The first is that he called for tougher laws that prevent lenders from continuing to make the bad loans that created this crisis. The second was that the federal money going to help out homeowners should not be used to bail out lenders or property speculators (hmmm…where have I seen this before?)

Mark this date on your calendar. I have actually agreed with someone from Bush Co.

Popularity: 16% [?]