ABSTRACT
Homeownership is the main vehicle for accumulating wealth for most Americans.1 In the past, legally sanctioned discrimination impeded minorities’ efforts to purchase homes. Such discrimination, while illegal today, is far from eradicated. Indeed, discrimination in lending continues in the form of credit denials and excessive interest rates and fees. As a result, people of color still do not have the same opportunities as whites to own homes and build wealth. In recent years the federal government has successfully implemented policies designed to increase minority homeownership. However, lenders have undermined these hard-won gains by making home purchase and refinance loans with predatory features to people of color.2 Soaring interest payments on loans now imperil homeownership among black, Hispanic, and Native American households.
