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Race, Gender, and Statistical Representation: Predatory Mortgage Lending and the US Community Reinvestment Movement

Author

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  • Elvin K Wyly

    (Department of Geography, University of British Columbia, 1984 West Mall, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z2, Canada)

  • Mona Atia

    (Department of Geography, University of Washington, Box 353550, Smith Hall 408, Seattle, WA 98195, USA)

  • Elizabeth Lee
  • Pablo Mendez

Abstract

American mortgage markets, once arenas of discrimination by exclusion, now operate as venues of segmentation and discrimination by inclusion: credit is widely available, but its terms vary enormously. One market segment involves sophisticated predatory practices in which certain groups of borrowers are targeted for high-cost credit that strips out home equity and worsens the risks of delinquency, default, and foreclosure. Unfortunately, it has become more difficult to measure inequalities of predatory lending: race–ethnicity and gender are ‘disappearing’ from the main public data source used to study, organize, and mobilize on issues of lending inequalities. In this paper, we present a mixed-methods case study of statistical representation of homeowners and homebuyers marginalized by race, ethnicity, and gender. A theoretical examination of official data-collection practices is followed by a discussion of alternative meanings of racial–ethnic and gender nondisclosure. Interviews with a sample of homeowners and homebuyers in the Washington, DC, area reveal some respondent ambivalence about the details of data-collection practices, but provide no consistent support for the idea that nonreporting is solely a matter of individual choice. Econometric analyses indicate that nondisclosure is driven primarily by lending-industry practices, with the strongest disparate impacts in African-American suburbs. Predatory lending is producing ambivalent spaces of racial-ethnic and gender invisibility, requiring new strategies in the reinvestment movement.

Suggested Citation

  • Elvin K Wyly & Mona Atia & Elizabeth Lee & Pablo Mendez, 2007. "Race, Gender, and Statistical Representation: Predatory Mortgage Lending and the US Community Reinvestment Movement," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 39(9), pages 2139-2166, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:envira:v:39:y:2007:i:9:p:2139-2166
    DOI: 10.1068/a38224
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Charles Hirschman & Richard Alba & Reynolds Farley, 2000. "The meaning and measurement of race in the U.S. census: Glimpses into the future," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 37(3), pages 381-393, August.
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    3. Stephen L. Ross & John Yinger, 2002. "The Color of Credit: Mortgage Discrimination, Research Methodology, and Fair-Lending Enforcement," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 1, volume 1, number 0262182289, April.
    4. Rothenberg, Jerome & Galster, George C. & Butler, Richard V. & Pitkin, John R., 1991. "The Maze of Urban Housing Markets," University of Chicago Press Economics Books, University of Chicago Press, number 9780226729510, September.
    5. Kathleen Engel & Patricia McCoy, 2004. "Predatory lending: What does Wall Street have to do with it?," Housing Policy Debate, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 15(3), pages 715-751.
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    Cited by:

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    2. Huck, Nicolas & Mavoori, Hareesh & Mesly, Olivier, 2020. "The rationality of irrationality in times of financial crises," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 89(C), pages 337-350.
    3. Walker, Chad & Baxter, Jamie & Ouellette, Danielle, 2015. "Adding insult to injury: The development of psychosocial stress in Ontario wind turbine communities," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 133(C), pages 358-365.

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