Staff writer
BIAS SOFTWARE
Data analysis of 2 million applicants by The Markup, found out that nationwide, lenders through ‘software’ are responsible for conventional mortgage denials of 40% Latin X and 80% African Americans borrowers even when they had comparable financial profiles to their white counterparts.
Conventional mortgages are different from those subsidized for people with lower credit scores.
This is no news to many minorities, but a confirmation of the limits of human engineered computations.
Bias is built into the logarithmic software used to guide the loan approval processes since data is human imputed using some of the same factors that may had marginalized these communities prior.
Black owned banks are more intentional in providing financial services to minorities, underserved and low to moderate areas than the main stream banks.
Some of these critical banking services are crucial such as business loans to black/ minority businesses and home mortgages.
It is for these reasons, those that hail from these communities and not plugged in, take a second look and purpose to build these institutions by banking and conduct more business.
It is worth noting, The FDIC (Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation) is an independent agency of the United States government with the sole mandate to protect all depositors of FDIC – insured banks and community credit unions incase of institutional failure.
FDIC insurance is backed by the full faith and credit of the United States government.
The link below is a list of US banks and credit unions that serve blacks and other minorities.
Note: Starting September 2021, Fannie Mae will start to factor rental payment history for mortgage applicants. According to Malloy Evans, executive vice president and head of single-family at Fannie Mae, rental payment history would like have a positive impact on an application for under represented communities for home ownership.
INSTITUTIONAL INVESTORS
According to The Real Deal, a real estate news magazine, institutional investors are now responsible for scooping up 20% of single family homes, a major problem for home buyers to contend with.
This has not only shrinked available homes but pushed home prices up exacerbating challenges for new entrants and minorities to home ownership.
In a good bit of cases, investors are not just buying single-family homes but entire subdivisions. Yield chasing investors strapped with cash and those expanding their portfolios into real estate are now potentially a permanent fixture to reckon with.
Many of these investors are targeting lower-priced homes. According to a report from John Burns Consulting, cash purchases account for 67 percent of homes sold below $100,000 and 31 percent of homes sold between $100,000 and $200,000.
This will likely relegate a group of aspiring home owners to permanent renters.
Check out the investigative report –
https://themarkup.org/denied/2021/08/25/the-secret-bias-hidden-in-mortgage-approval-algorithms
