The same minority groups hit hardest by the housing bust are benefiting least during recovery.
African American and Hispanic households make up a smaller share of new home purchase loans than they did before the recession, write Laurie Goodman, Jun Zhu, and Taz George. This is despite steady growth in both groups between 2001 and 2005.
What happened? Many non-white households signed on to the predatory mortgages that helped lead to the housing collapse. They thus defaulted in higher numbers, and are now being kept out of the housing market by stringent lending practices. “Today’s credit inaccessibility is locking out African American and Hispanic borrowers disproportionately—at exactly the point in the economic cycle that favors new homeownership,” write Goodman, Zhu, and George.

Amtrak Ramping Up Infrastructure Projects
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Ending Downtown San Francisco’s ‘Doom Loop’
A new public space project offers an ambitious vision—so why is the city implementing it at such a small scale?

Proposal Would Transform L.A.’s ‘Freeway to Nowhere’ Into Park, Housing
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Seattle Passes Downtown Zoning Reforms
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Report: U.S. Biking Boom Slows
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Tempe Historic Preservation Proposal Could Make it Harder to Build New Homes
Proposed changes to the city’s preservation ordinance would make two-thirds of the city’s housing stock eligible for preservation.
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