Law Commons^™

Foreword, Patricia A. Mccoy

Patricia A. McCoy

In the wake of the financial crisis, mortgage lending to lower-income and minority borrowers overcorrected and has not recovered. Although homeownership is a riskier investment than previously realized, still it remains a proven path to increased wealth on balance for lower-income households. There are a number of reasonable reforms that could achieve greater access to credit while containing default risk. These include strategies to reduce down payments safely and to keep monthly payments manageable, combined with fixed-rate loans. Prepurchase counseling is important to preparing applicants for the financial demands of homeownership and strengthening their credit histories, while rapid foreclosure prevention …

What Loss Mitigation Taught Us About Housing Finance Reform, Patricia Mccoy

Patricia A. McCoy

This blog post describes the implications of the recent US loss mitigation experience for housing reform.

The Home Mortgage Foreclosure Crisis: Lessons Learned

Patricia A. McCoy

Presentation of book chapter which explores the lessons learned from the nation's home mortgage loss mitigation initiatives.

From Credit Denial To Predatory Lending: The Challenge Of Sustaining Minority Homeownership

Patricia A. McCoy

Years of discriminatory behavior against minority households have damaged their ability to build wealth. One of the most financially destructive practices endured by minority households is the excessive overpayment to finance a home purchase or access accumulated equity in a home. The market conditions that position blacks, and to a lesser extent, Latino households, to be the principal targets of predatory mortgage lending have their roots in decades of legally sanctioned housing market discrimination. Some minority households lack the financial knowledge or awareness to protect themselves. In other cases, years of discriminatory financial practices have contributed to rendering them ineligible …

The Home Mortgage Disclosure Act: A Synopsis And Recent Legislative History

Patricia A. McCoy

This article describes the provisions of the federal Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA), tracing its legal evolution since 1989, when Congress expanded HMDA to require reporting of home mortgage lending by ethnicity and race. HMDA requires most lenders to report the demographic makeup and geographic distribution of home mortgages to the federal government. The 1989 amendments and later developments transformed HMDA from a law exclusively concerned with geographic disinvestment to one concerned with lending disparities by ethnicity and race. In the process, HMDA evolved from an obscure reporting statute to a flashpoint for debates over lending discrimination and subprime lending.

Predatory Lending And Community Development At Loggerheads

Patricia A. McCoy

For decades, cities have invested in decaying neighborhoods, leading to increases in home values and home equity. As a result, these neighborhoods have become ready targets for predatory lenders, who market their abusive loans to financially unsophisticated homeowners with home equity and no relationships with traditional lenders. Some borrowers lose their homes; others forsake home repairs to avoid default and foreclosure. Neighborhoods that once were stable become littered with abandoned and neglected homes, resulting in increased crime, falling home values, rising demands for social services, and lower tax revenues.

In the wake of the devastation done by predatory lenders, the …