High cost mortgage lending threatens the ability of lower income families to build assets in the Chicago region and nationally. In many cases, these loans drastically increase the monthly debt payments through falsified loan documents or hidden fees and penalties reducing the available income for savings or other asset building activities. In other cases, the burden of an inflated mortgage payment leads to foreclosure, the complete loss of accumulated equity and a financial burden on the borrower and the community.

In the Chicago region alone, the number of foreclosures has increased from just over 4,000 in 1995 to more than 18,000 in 2002. Woodstock Institute has documented the effects of predatory lending in the Chicago region and the results clearly point to high cost, predatory lending as one of the major contributors to neighborhood decline and asset stripping. This research notes that high cost lending is concentrated in predominately minority communities, that this concentrated subprime lending has a direct effect on the level of foreclosures in those communities, and that those foreclosures have a substantial and cumulative negative impact on property values in those communities.

Woodstock Institute works to reduce the level of high cost, predatory lending in lower income and minority communities through applied research and public policy, and in effect help borrowers and communities build and retain modest assets.