Persistence of mortgage lending bias in the United States: 80 years after the Home Owners' Loan Corporation security maps. J Race Ethn City 2022;3(1):70-94
Date
08/23/2022Pubmed ID
35992214Pubmed Central ID
PMC9387904DOI
10.1080/26884674.2021.2019568Scopus ID
2-s2.0-85163991271 (requires institutional sign-in at Scopus site) 23 CitationsAbstract
Housing discrimination and racial segregation have a long history in the United States. The 1930's Home Owners' Loan Corporation (HOLC) "residential security maps," recently digitized, have become a popular visualization of Depression era mortgage lending risk patterns across American cities. Numerous housing policies have since been instituted, including the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA), but mortgage lending bias persists. The degree to which detailed spatial patterns of bias have persisted or changed along with urban change is not well understood. We compare historic HOLC grades and contemporary levels of mortgage lending bias using spatially detailed HMDA data. We further examine the relationship between HOLC risk grades and contemporary racial and ethnic settlement patterns. Results suggest that historical mortgage lending risk categorizations and settlement patterns are associated with contemporary mortgage lending bias and racial and ethnic settlement patterns. Concerted and deliberate efforts will be needed to change these patterns.
Author List
Namin S, Zhou Y, Xu W, McGinley E, Jankowski C, Laud P, Beyer KAuthors
Kirsten M. Beyer PhD, MS, MPH Professor in the Institute for Health and Humanity department at Medical College of WisconsinPurushottam W. Laud PhD Adjunct Professor in the Data Science Institute department at Medical College of Wisconsin
Emily L. McGinley MS, MPH Biostatistician III in the Center for Advancing Population Science department at Medical College of Wisconsin
Wei Xu PhD Assistant Professor in the Institute for Health and Humanity department at Medical College of Wisconsin
