Search Results
Working Paper
Have the doors opened wider? trends in homeownership rates by race and income
Homeownership among U.S. families increased notably in recent years, from 63.9% in 1989 to 66.2% in 1998. This paper examines this trend and the factors contributing to it. We find that (1) homeownership has risen for all racial, ethnic, and income groups, (2) the differences in homeownership between minority and non-minority families and between middle- income and lower-income families declined significantly, and (3) changes in family-related characteristics explain homeownership trends among only the top two income quintiles. Among the lower two income quintiles, family-related ...
Journal Article
Trends in home purchase lending: consolidation and the Community Reinvestment Act
Consolidation among banking institutions has substantially changed the structure of the banking industry. Between 1975 and 1997, the number of commercial banks and savings associations declined more than 40 percent. Over the same broad period, the market for home mortgage lending has also changed substantially. Notably, home mortgage lending is no longer primarily the province of banking institutions operating in the communities in which they have banking offices. In recent decades, mortgage and finance companies and banking organizations operating outside their local communities have gained ...
Conference Paper
The impact of CRA agreements on community banks
Journal Article
New information on lending to small businesses and small farms: the 1996 CRA data
As a consequence of recent revisions to the regulations that implement the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA), new information is now publicly available on the geographic distribution of small loans to businesses and farms and on community development lending. Because small businesses and small farms are more likely than larger ones to borrow small amounts, the CRA data on small loans are likely to provide a reasonable measure of the extension of credit to such businesses. Thus, the CRA data provide new opportunities to gauge the flow of credit to communities with differing economic and ...
Working Paper
Regulatory incentives and consolidation: the case of commercial bank mergers and the Community Reinvestment Act
Bank regulators are required to consider a bank?s record of providing credit to low- and moderate-income neighborhoods and individuals in approving bank applications for mergers and acquisitions. We test the hypothesis that banks strategically prepare for the regulatory and public scrutiny associated with a merger or acquisition by increasing their lending to low-and moderate-income individuals in anticipation of acquiring another institution. We find evidence in favor of this hypothesis. In particular, we show that the higher the percentage of the institution?s mortgage originations in a ...
Working Paper
The role of race in mortgage lending: revisiting the Boston Fed study
This paper reexamines claims that non-economic discrimination persists in mortgage loan origination decisions. I find that racial differences in outcomes do exist, as minorities fare worse regarding debt-to-income requirements but better for loan-to-value requirements. Overall, significant racial differentials exist only for ``marginal'' applicants and are not present for those with higher incomes or those with no credit problems. Thus, the claim that non-economic discrimination is a general phenomenon is refuted. Further, I can say little regarding the existence of discrimination among ...
Working Paper
Supplier relationships and small business use of trade credit
This paper sheds some light on the empirical importance of supplier relationships, including ethnic ties, for the use of trade credit by minority-owned small businesses. Results based on the 1993 National Survey of Small Business Finance (NSSBF) indicate that ethnic differences in the use of trade credit are present after conditioning on an extensive list of control variables. This holds especially for Black-owned businesses, and we find that they use less trade credit, are less likely to take advantage of discounts for early payment, and are more likely to have payments past due. We use ...
Conference Paper
Community lending and commercial bank mergers