A little noted report last month deserves a much closer review. It concludes that the subprime mortgage crisis is causing African-Americans to “experience the greatest loss of wealth in U.S. history.”
The report is from United for a Fair Economy and is called “Foreclosed–The State of the Dream 2008.”
According to the report, American blacks stand to lose some $213 billion because of the subprime crisis.
The report says that mortgage lenders have targeted the poor–in particular blacks–with high cost loans that they can’t afford.
Federal statistics quoted by the report appear to show that African-Americans are “more than three times more likely to have subprime loans.”
55% of blacks have high cost loans of different types compared with about 17 % of white homeowners.
The co-author of the report, Dedrick Muhammad, with the Institute for Policy Studies, in an interview, told “Democracy Now” that it is clear “that the subprime industry was focusing on the weak of our society and was trying to take advantage of people…”
Muhammad says that private companies are actually taking away “the little wealth that African Americans and Latinos have been able to develop over these last thirty, forty years.”
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I really enjoy reading this article!
a lot of ppl have been affected by this subprime crisis. Hopefully, we will all be able to walk away from it
“Foreclosed–The State of the Dream 2008.”
Whats the title. HAHAHAHA
A recent article I read noted that the worst loans often are given to the borrowers with the least financial knowlege and experience, which usually means poop people, or those from poor backgrounds. Another interesting article noted that we are becoming a debtor society, which is encouraged by lenders, especially credit card companies. This means that instead of the average person earning the interest on their savings over time and building wealth, a corporation earns the interest on borrowers’ debts.
Hopefully, we will all be able to walk away from it
I don’t know if I would say targeted them. My own experence with home buyers has been that there were some ethnic groups who had much better credit than others. Those with the much better credit did not need nor did they get sub-prime loans. Many who did get subprime loans could have used them to rebuild there poor credit, but they did not do that. They continued in there old, less responsible ways, not paying bills on time, not rebuilding their credit ratings. So of course went he 2 years was up and the subprime could be refinanced, many of these people had the same or worse credit score than they had when they got the subprime loan. I think the blame is on the borrower as much as it is on the companies making the loans to them.
I don’t know why mortgage lenders have targeted the poor–in particular blacks–with high cost loans that they can’t afford?
It’s a domino effect that starts with sub-prime and continues to collapse the entire economy. People need and are looking for options.
Why would they say that? Is it political reasons?
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