Journal Article
Introducing, Understanding, and Using the ICI 300 Peer Cities Identification Tool
Longworth, Susan; O'Dell, Mark; George, Taz (2016)
Municipalities, especially those that are mid-sized or smaller, often face significant challenges in providing services and amenities to meet the needs of their diverse and changing populations. Solutions are usually context-specific and must factor in larger demographic and economic trends, in order to be effective. And, yet, in spite of contextual differences, cities frequently have meaningful similarities. However, identifying peer cities is often informed more by conversation than by data or evidence.
Profitwise , Issue 4 , Pages 3-8

Journal Article
The Geography of Subprime Credit
Newberger, Robin G.; George, Taz; O'Dell, Mark (2019)
Improving the financial lives of the people living in neighborhoods with large concentrations of lowcredit-scored households1 requires an understanding of the socioeconomic and financial challenges of those places. In this study, we identify such neighborhoods and analyze their socioeconomic and financial attributes, focusing on Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, and Wisconsin (the five states served by the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago). We find geographic patterns in the locations of subprime-scored households, in particular that these households are more highly concentrated in urban ...
Profitwise , Issue 6 , Pages 1-11

Journal Article
The Changing Composition of Bank Branches in Seventh Federal Reserve District States
George, Taz; O'Dell, Mark; Newberger, Robin G. (2016)
Across the United States, the banking office landscape has shifted substantially since the financial crisis in 2008, reflecting both long-standing trends of small bank closures, as well as more recent patterns of bank branch declines. These trends are playing out in the states of the Seventh District as well, where the number of banking offices has declined in each state, and increasingly, community banks are losing their share of branches in certain markets. Low- and moderate-income (LMI) neighborhoods in a few of the District?s most populous counties are nearly devoid of community banks.
Profitwise , Issue 2 , Pages 4-13

Discussion Paper
Small-Dollar Mortgages for Single-Family Residential Properties
Strochak, Sarah; McCargo, Alanna; George, Taz; Bai, Bing (2018-04-01)
There is a significant lack of financing available for low-cost homes, which many first-time homebuyers and low- and middle-income families rely on to move from renting to homeownership. This brief examines the availability of small-dollar mortgages (up to $70,000) for home purchases, refinances, and improvements, presenting a wealth of information on borrower and loan characteristics, production channels, and the geographic distribution of low-cost homes. We find that there is limited mortgage availability for the small loans needed to support the significant number of low-cost property ...
Policy Discussion Paper Series

Journal Article
Preliminary Findings from Focus Groups on Economic Inclusion in Smaller Cities
O'Dell, Mark; Longworth, Susan; George, Taz (2019)
A growing body of work by the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago and partners points to challenges that "legacy cities" face in extending economic opportunity to all residents. This article reports findings from a series of focus groups conducted around the 7th District to better understand what city leaders are doing to advance positive labor market outcomes for residents.
Profitwise , Issue 2 , Pages 1-10

Journal Article
Residential Mortgage Lending for Underserved Communities: Recent Innovations
George, Taz; Keller, Jason; Engel, Emily (2016)
As the United States continues to recover from its worst financial crisis since the 1930s, housing finance leaders from both the public and private sectors have diligently worked to develop programs, products, and services to safely expand access to affordable homeownership. Despite persistently low interest rates, relatively modest growth in home prices, and a strengthening labor market, purchase mortgage volume remains low compared to the pre-crisis and pre-bubble years, and the homeownership rate continues to fall. Factors contributing to the homeownership decline include the still ...
Profitwise , Issue 1 , Pages 11-19

Journal Article
Maintaining Housing Affordability: The Role of University Partnerships in Iowa City and Other Communities
George, Taz; Williams, Marva (2016)
This article comprises two main elements; the first is a review of this process and those meetings. It begins with an overview of how UI policies have impacted affordable housing markets in Johnson County, the county home of Iowa City. The second section describes university partnerships that involve institutional engagement to address local housing issues and other local needs, shared by three university professionals from Drexel University, the University of Minnesota, and the University of Illinois at Chicago. The conclusion is a short description of next steps.
Profitwise , Issue 4 , Pages 9-16

Newsletter
Credit card delinquency and Covid-19: Neighborhood trends in the Seventh District
O'Dell, Mark; George, Taz; Newberger, Robin G.; Dharmasankar, Sharada (2021-04-15)
The Covid-19 pandemic has resulted in great economic and financial disruption. To better understand how financial hardships have varied across communities, we investigate credit card delinquencies across the states of the Federal Reserve’s Seventh District: Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, and Wisconsin. While we find a slight increase of less than 1 percentage point in delinquency rates across the District overall following the onset of the pandemic, we find more pronounced increases of about 2 percentage points in low- and moderate-income (LMI) neighborhoods and about 3 percentage ...
Chicago Fed Letter , Issue 454 , Pages 7