Study: Subprime mortgages hit Lorain hardest
August 28, 2008
Source: Lorain Chronicle-Telegram
By Steve Fogarty
A study done by a Cleveland-based fair housing group has found that blacks in Lorain County obtained costly subprime housing loans more than twice as often as whites and were denied mortgage loans far more often than whites or Hispanics.
The study also found that the greatest concentration of expensive subprime lending (42.6 percent of all loans) occurred in Lorain, followed by Sheffield Township (38.3 percent of all loans) and Sheffield Lake (37 percent of all loans).
These facts are just some of those contained in the “Lorain County Community Lending Factbook,” a report compiled from a study by The Housing Research & Advocacy Center, a Cleveland-based nonprofit fair housing organization that works to eliminate housing discrimination and provide choice for Northeast Ohioans. Based on 2006 mortgage lending data, the study was funded by grants from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
African Americans in the county obtained more costly subprime loans 57.2 percent of the time, compared with 25.3 percent for whites and 36.4 percent for Hispanics. When they were turned down for mortgage loans, blacks were rejected most often, followed by Hispanics, whites and Asians.
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