The Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies has issued a new report that examines lending patterns during the housing boom and the current efforts to create a new mortgage market.
The report, titled ‘Getting On the Right Track: Improving Low-Income and Minority Access to Mortgage Credit after the Housing Bust,’ explores how changes to the housing finance system will affect future lending to lower-income and minority borrowers and communities, as well as what policies and programs will be needed to promote sustainable homeownership opportunities in these areas over time.
‘Accomplishing these goals will not be easy or quick,’ says William Apgar, senior scholar at the Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies and a primary author of the report. ‘Low-income and minority communities were among the hardest hit by the mortgage market meltdown. Since policymakers have failed to address longstanding issues – including persistent racial and ethnic discrimination and growing inequality in the distribution of income and wealth – these same households and neighborhoods may not fully benefit from the emerging housing recovery.’
The report is now available online.