Indepth analysis of persistent problems in the field of community development. Woodstock's research reports contribute to the body of knowledge used by policymakers and community development practitioners.
This report summarizes key
foreclosure trends in the Chicago region for 2008
and updates Woodstock Institute reports and fact sheets
released previously that illustrated key aspects of the foreclosure
crisis such as the spread of the crisis to
suburban communities, the potential impact of the foreclosures
on Chicago’s
affordable rental housing market, and the growing number of foreclosures that
were becoming bank-owned properties and likely
sitting vacant. The report includes detailed appendices with data
for City of Chicago community areas
and municipalities in the Chicago Six County Area.
The following analysis examines patterns of negative equity in communities of different racial and ethnic compositions in the Chicago six county region. It combines 2011 data on negative equity in Chicago region ZIP codes with U.S. Census data on the racial/ethnic composition of ZIP Code Tabulation Areas (ZCTA). It finds that negative equity is disproportionately concentrated in the Chicago region’s African American, Latino, and majority minority neighborhoods, and that borrowers in communities of color have much lower equity than do borrowers in predominantly white communities. This report concludes with recommendations to reduce the impact of declining property values and the number of homeowners with negative equity, including broader use of principal reduction loan modifications and short sales.
Profiles model small business lending programs around the country that
target modest-income communities. Examples include bank-community
partnerships, specialized bank units, multibank efforts,
government-administered programs, and CDFIs. The report also offers
lessons for effectively reaching underserved markets.
Explains the importance of small business development to modest-income
urban neighborhoods, including discussions of access-to-credit problems
and the role of CRA and economic development finance in these markets.
Provides a framework for developing strategies for addressing small
business financing needs in targeted markets.
This report analyzed Chicago region foreclosure auction and property transfer data and found that vacant, lender-owned properties are heavily concentrated in African American communities, go unsold longer, and incur greater losses to the lender than similar properties in predominantly white communities.
Illustrates the quantitative relationship between the level of subprime lending in a neighborhood and foreclosure levels in a subsequent period, while controlling for changes in economic and demographic characteristics that might also effect foreclosure rates.
This report examines the reality of credit unions' claim that they honor the mission stated in the Federal Credit Union Act to meet the savings and credit needs of "persons of modest means." The report also discusses why it is so important that credit unions fulfill this statutory responsibility and how they might do so more effectively in the future.
The report documents the decline in personal savings rates while explaining the recent saving incentive for lower-income people created by the federal Pension Protection Act of 2006. While the credit is a modest step in the right direction for providing lower-income people the level of incentives currently provided to middle- and upper-income people, the report recommends that it be made refundable to expand its benefits to all income qualified tax payers.
This alert examines the service test evaluations of Chicago area large banks and thrifts to determine what information on services is collected and analyzed during the test procedures and looks at how regulators use these data to assess service test performance. The alert also discusses the limitations of the available data and makes recommendations for steps that might be taken to improve the effectiveness of the service test performance evaluation.