Indepth analysis of persistant problems in the field of community development. Woodstock's research reports contribute to the body of knowledge used by policymakers and community development practitioners.
Finds that lending for home purchases throughout
the Chicago area has increased dramatically in recent years, with loan
volume up by 50 percent from 1990 to 1994. Loans to low- and
moderate-income individuals increased at even higher rates than overall
loans, increasingby 85 percent over the same period.
The Community Reinvestment Act has brought solid
benefits to a critical part of the Chicago economy -- the multifamily
housing market. Good quality rental housing is essential to the
well-being of low- and moderate-income families in Chicago, and is a
sign of neighborhood stability particularly in neighborhoods where a
high percentage of the housing stock is multifamily.
This alert examines two proposed changes to the
regulation of the Community Reinvestment Act: A regulation
calling for the collection and disclosure of small business loan
application and origination data for banks and savings and loans by
census tract. Second, a proposal calling for the use of some objective
measures as key indicators of a bank's responsiveness to credit and
capital needs. Woodstock Institute found that on both these central
changes, the revised proposal is a substantial retreat from earlier
progress.
The most recently available home mortgage data for
the Chicago region show that refinancing loans were not uniformly
accessible to all residents. As a result, many borrowers,
particularly African-Americans, have not benefited from the refinancing
boom of the 1990's.
Lending test under the proposed 1994 CRA rules
show that some large Chicago area mortgage companies have poor lending
records in low- and moderate-income neighborhoods.
