Minorities Receive Unfair Treatment in the Housing Market

Across the housing market, $7 trillion has been lost for the last couple of years due to the failing economy. There are about 4 million Americans, which is quite a high number, who have houses that has either gone into foreclosure or they cannot make their mortgage payments. Foreclosure are a bad thing because they cause home prices to fall.

The foreclosure crisis is far from over as well and 3.6 million houses are in danger of falling into the foreclosure trap. The most affected individuals are those whom are black or Hispanic; Asians don’t experience as much discrimination but still are affected.

The number of blacks and Hispanics that are negatively affected by foreclosure is twice as high as the number of whites that are adversely affected by it. Blacks and Hispanics are almost twice as likely to be affected negatively by foreclosure; one quarter of all blacks and Hispanics have lost their homes to foreclosure.

Banks and lenders also do not treat minorities well and they often get denied access to good home loans. They use predatory lending practices more often on minority groups than on whites due to racism, prejudice, etc. ThinkProgress reported on this unfair advantage whites have over minorities in 2009 and shed more light on the housing market.

A few years back many banks were encouraging minorities to take on high-priced subprime loans; these kinds of loans can add about $100,000 to the original balance of a loan and are not beneficial whatsoever. 30.9 percent of Latinos and 41.5 percent of blacks were given these bad loans compared to 17.8 percent of whites. This disparity in the statistics shows how unfair the housing market is in their treatment of minority homeowners.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which is a new division of the government, was recently created. This should help minorities receive better treatment and achieve new policies that are aimed to protect them. There is definitely hope for the future.