Bank Adaptation to Neighborhood Change: Mortgage Lending and the Community Reinvestment Act

Location: Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies | One Bow Street, 4th Floor, Cambridge

Hyojung Lee, Postdoctoral Fellow, Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies

This talk will report on a recent study that used the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) as a case study of the unintended consequences of regulation.  The study, which was carried out by Lee and Raphael W. Bostic, found that banks approve loans more frequently in rapidly improving neighborhoods and that this effect is strongest within banks’ CRA assessment areas (as opposed to places outside of those areas). While this approach is appealing to bank officials because it reduces default risk while still complying with fair lending regulations, it suggests that the CRA regulations unintentionally lead banks to favor some underserved neighborhoods at the expense of other areas that arguably could use more assistance.

This talk is part of the Center’s ongoing Housing Research Seminar Series, which gives faculty, senior researchers, and graduate students the opportunity to present and discuss current and recent work with a mix of scholars and practitioners.

Watch the video here

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