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Mortgage Lending Disparities in Metropolitan Buffalo: Implications for Community Reinvestment Policy

Date: Jul 26, 2008
Author(s): Robert Silverman
Topic(s): Economic Development: General, Housing / Neighborhoods: General
Type: Publication
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This article examines patterns of mortgage lending in metropolitan Buffalo, New York. The analysis is based on 1999-2002 HMDA data and 2000 Census data for metropolitan Buffalo. Mortgage lending patterns in census tracts are compared using descriptive statistics, GIS mapping, and multiple regression. The results from this analysis indicate that disparities in mortgage lending between census tracts are attributable to differences in: educational attainment, neighborhood socioeconomic distress, residential stability, and the age of neighborhood housing stock. It is noteworthy that after controlling for other variables, race and core city location did not significantly affect mortgage lending patterns. The findings from this analysis indicate that disinvestment is no longer confined to minority communities in core cities. Instead, it is becoming a more general phenomenon in metropolitan areas. Policy recommendations are forwarded in light of the findings from this research.

This report at others were written and supported by the UB Center for Urban Studies. 

The goal of the UB Center for Urban Studies research is to produce a knowledge base to guide the building of just and democratic metros that enable residents to realize their full human potential and acquire the larger freedoms. Founded in 1987 by Dr.  Henry Louis Taylor, Jr., the UB Center for Urban Studies is a research, neighborhood planning and community development institute, which focuses on the transformation of vulnerable, underdeveloped and distressed neighborhoods into communities of opportunity. 

You can find this and more of their research on the Center for Urban Studies Research page