The Effect of the Community Reinvestment Act on Bank and Thrift Home Purchase Mortgage Lending

Eric Belsky, Michael Schill, Anthony Yezer
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This analysis considers the extent to which the Community Reinvestment Act has led institutions under its authority to increase the number of home purchase mortgage loans to low-and-moderate-income (LMI) borrowers and neighborhoods. The basis for the analysis is a large sample of loans for the 1993-1999 time period submitted by financial institutions under the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA) of 1975. The HMDA data for this analysis have been enhanced through linkage to a descriptive file on lenders from the Federal Reserve Board…