Since banks constricted credit immediately after the 2008 housing bust, they have been slowly increasing the amount they’re lending. But this economic prosperity has not reached everyone. Reveal’s yearlong analysis of 31 million mortgage records found that in 61 metro areas across the country, people of color are denied loans at disproportionately higher rates than white applicants.
In the second part of our two-part series for PBS NewsHour, we return to Philadelphia, one of the largest cities where our analysis found high rates of denials for black applicants. The 40-year-old Community Reinvestment Act was meant to prevent this from happening. Passed in 1977 by President Jimmy Carter, it forced banks to lend in low-income communities and to low-income applicants. But the law didn’t anticipate a day when historically black neighborhoods would be sought out by young white homebuyers. So in cities such as Philadelphia, banks are helping white newcomers instead of longtime residents.
KEPT OUT
- Read: For people of color, banks are shutting the door to homeownership
- Read: Gentrification became low-income lending law’s unintended consequence
- Read: 8 lenders that aren’t serving people of color for home loans
- Listen: The red line: Racial disparities in lending
- Learn: How we did our analysis
- Explore: Search for lending disparities where you live, or text LOAN to 202-873-8325 to Reveal. Standard text rates apply.
- Read: The full white paper
- Watch: Struggle for black and Latino mortgage applicants suggests modern-day redlining
Reporter
Aaron Glantz
Data Reporter
Emmanuel Martinez
Producer
Rachel de Leon
Senior Producers
David Ritsher
Richard Coolidge
Videographers
Rachel de Leon
Jaywon Chloe
Kimberly Paynter
Archival
Ringo Chiu/Zuma Press
Alamy Stock Photo
Production Assistants
Cody Knoblauch
Matthew MacLean
Executive Producer
Amanda Pike
Sara Just
Editor in Chief
Amy Pyle
Produced for
PBS NewsHour
Supported by
The Fledgling Fund