The Dual Mortgage Market: The Persistence of Discrimination in Mortgage Lending

W05-11: Efforts to promote equal access to mortgage capital by racial and ethnic minorities have historically been a key component of the civil rights agenda in the United States. From the struggle to enact fair housing and fair lending legislation in the 1960s to the community-based advocacy that prompted Congress to pass the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA) and the Community Reinvestment Act in the 1970s, housing and civil rights advocates have pursued a common goal of eradicating racial discrimination in home mortgage lending. Today, the fight continues as housing advocates seek to expand regulatory and legislative action to halt predatory lending practices that burden many minorities with mortgages they cannot afford and often do not need…