Mortgage Mess
Black Americans are much more likely than whites to get stuck paying high interest rates for their mortgages than whites, according to a comprehensive investigation by Aliza Appelbaum and Alden K. Loury of The Chicago Reporter. Their "An Equal Opportunity to Pay More" reports that the disparity holds true in each of the 251 metropolitan areas studied, even when blacks make the same income as whites. Analyzing 8.5 million mortgages granted nationwide in 2006 (the most recent year the data was available), Appelbaum and Loury found that "African-American borrowers were nearly two-and-half times more likely than their white counterparts to get 'high-cost” home loans.'" They were also more likely to have high-interest loans than Asians, Latinos and Native Americans. This story is a great example of the power of computer-assisted reporting and sheds light on some of the reasons behind the country's foreclosure crisis. Appelbaum and Loury's work comes nearly 20 years after Bill Dedman's Pulitzer-winning "The Color of Money" unmasked deep racial disparities in mortgage lending. chicagoreporter.com/index.php/c/Web_Extras/d/An_Equal_Opportunity_To_Pay_More
For a more localized look at the mortgage crisis, check out The Columbus Dispatch's "Bursting Bubbles." Reporters Bill Bush, Geoff Dutton and Doug Haddix analyzed county property tax records and a federal database of 1.4 million mortgages s in Ohio to document how subprime mortgages are lowering property values in the Columbus area, hurting not only people with risky mortgages but also renters and residents who have not fallen behind on their payments. http://dispatch.com/live/content/insight/stories/2008/06/01/PROPDROP.ART_ART_06-01-08_G1_B5ABD2U.html?sid=101
Finally, a tip of the hat to Marcus Baram of ABC News whose "The VIP Treatment" disclosed how Democratic senators Chris Dodd and Kent Conrad got special breaks on their home loans from Countrywide Financial. http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/story?id=5062502&page=1
Do you know of any other great stories about the mortgage mess? Leave us a comment and let us know.