Foreclosure Data Part III

One more update, from the NNIP listserve:

Last week, we released a report on how the tightening credit market has affected homebuyers in New York City and the country as a whole. Declining Credit & Growing Disparities: Key Findings from HMDA 2007 uses Federal Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA) data released last month to analyze trends in home purchase and refinance lending activity between 2006 and 2007. The report highlights shifts in the high cost and prime markets, and illustrates how declining credit has affected borrowers of different races.

Much of the media’s focus has been on signs of tightening credit over the past few months, but our report illustrates that the flow of credit has been slowing for the housing markets for well over a year. In New York City, we saw dramatic declines in home purchase and refinance activity from 2006 to 2007 (14% and 31% respectively). Nationally, home purchase lending declined by 25% and refinance lending declined by 24%. Moreover, we see troubling signs that New York City's black and Hispanic borrowers are bearing the brunt of this decline in credit, and it is not simply evidence of the subprime market drying up. The number of prime loans awarded to black and Hispanic borrowers fell by 23% and 15% respectively between 2006 and 2007. By contrast, the number of prime loans issued to white borrowers rose by 4% while the number issued to Asians increased by 18%. If these trends continue, and black and Hispanic borrowers are disproportionately affected by the tightening credit market, it may mean less investment in communities of color, an undoing of recent progress in bringing homeownership opportunities to black and Hispanic New Yorkers, and a reshaping of who is buying homes in New York.

We encourage you to take a look and, as always, are interested in your feedback.

Vicki Been & Ingrid Gould Ellen