ABSTRACT

This chapter presents techniques and analyses of Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA) data that have been developed by US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Fair Housing Enforcement Center staff in Philadelphia to identify institutions that may be engaged in a pattern and practice of lending discrimination. Philadelphia is an old industrial city whose residents have tangibly experienced the stress of its economic transformation. To enforce the Fair Housing Act and related laws, the US HUD has begun identifying those lenders that contribute most to the unequal pattern of lending. The Secretary-initiated examination of mortgage lending patterns in Philadelphia focused on institutions receiving 50 or more applications for home mortgages on purchases of owner-occupied, one-to-four-unit family homes in the city in 1990. The chapter describes the extent to which past decisions of lenders and appraisers in Philadelphia dramatically influenced the settlement patterns of blacks and whites in Philadelphia.