That area, which includes the Sacramento and San Joaquin valleys, features six of the top 10 California metro areas for foreclosure concentrations, according to the Center for Responsible Lending, which released a comprehensive report Tuesday.
No California communities have experienced a higher percentage of defaults than Modesto, Merced and Stockton - each of which had a foreclosure percentage of around 16 percent between late 2006 and 2009, the study found. "The signature finding of this report, that there is a disproportionate rate of foreclosures for Latinos, is really stunning," said Paul Leonard, director of the California office for the Center for Responsible Lending. "The data shows that high-cost loans correlate with foreclosures and that there was a big presence of subprime lending
to the (Latino) demographic and in areas where there are concentrations of Latinos."
The center, a national nonprofit organization dedicated to fair lending practices, reported that minorities and remote suburbs - where incomes did not keep pace with escalating housing prices and unemployment has been high - were disproportionately represented in
loan defaults. READ FULL STORY
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