Even worse, African-American and Latino borrowers were respectively 2.8 and 2.3 times as likely to have received a mortgage loan with a prepayment penalty even though many of these borrowers could have qualified for more affordable and sustainable loans.
Across the country, more than half (52 percent) of the lost wealth resulting from living in close proximity to foreclosures was borne by minority census tract homeowners. In the District of Columbia and seven states –California, Florida, Illinois, Hawaii, Maryland, New Jersey and New York—an even greater share of lost wealth occurred in minority communities.
Additionally, African-Americans remain at a higher imminent risk of more foreclosures in Florida, New York, New Jersey, Ohio, and Illinois. For example, Black Floridians risk of imminent foreclosures is doubled that projected for the entire state.
As the nation prepares for the 2013 observance of the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday, the martyred leader’s historic call for economic justice has yet to be fulfilled.
(Charlene Crowell is a communications manager with the Center for Responsible Lending. She can be reached at: Charlene. crowell@responsiblending.org.)
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