Disparities in Mortgage Lending and Foreclosure among Latinos: Investigating the Effects of Loan Officer Ethnicity in Orlando, Florida

Authors

Conrad Ashby, Brigham Young University
Jacob S. Rugh, Brigham Young University

Keywords

mortgage lending, foreclosure, Latinos, loan officer ethnicity

College

Family, Home, and Social Sciences

Department

Sociology

Abstract

Disparities in mortgage lending have become a hot topic for debate in this century. Research has shown that among native-born households, non-white households are more likely than white households to experience foreclosure for both home purchase and refinance loans (Allen, 2011). Questions of how much the government should intervene in the housing-finance arena lead the debate, and it has been claimed that many problems may be solved through housing-finance intervention, such as 1) wealth inequality and poverty, 2) informational externalities, 3) banker and loan officer bigotry, and 4) racial discrimination (Calomiris, Kahn, Longhofer, 1994). The latter issue is an especially prevalent one in light of the recent housing crisis, and the suggested course of action against discrimination by lenders is to uncover their discriminatory practices and increase consumer and civil rights protections (Rugh and Massey 2010).

Recommended Citation

Ashby, Conrad and Rugh, Jacob S. (2016) "Disparities in Mortgage Lending and Foreclosure among Latinos: Investigating the Effects of Loan Officer Ethnicity in Orlando, Florida," Journal of Undergraduate Research: Vol. 2016: Iss. 1, Article 95.
Available at: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/jur/vol2016/iss1/95