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Democratizing Credit: Examining The Structural Inequities Of Subprime Lending, Cassandra Jones Havard

All Faculty Scholarship

This Article critiques the current regime of mortgage lending, which favors economic subordination. Minorities and low-and moderate income persons, regardless of their creditworthiness, are receiving higher loan rates. This is due to three market phenomena- the dominance of sub-prime lenders in the market in which prime lenders are more restricted to lend, the segmentation of the market so that certain products are offered to certain consumers, and the liquidity of the secondary market, which encourages lenders to make loans that are easily sold, but which may be inappropriately and impermissibly priced. Only by incorporating some transparency into the process will …