The annualized interest rate for a payday loan often exceeds 10 times that of a typical credit card, yet this market grew immensely in the 1990s and 2000s, elevating concerns about the risk payday loans pose to consumers and whether payday lenders target minority neighborhoods. This paper...

This article presents a number of key findings from a review of the data that mortgage lending institutions reported for 2010 under the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA). The article documents home-purchase lending activity reflected in the HMDA data and discusses how the ending of the...

One of the major reasons hypothesized for the tepid economic recovery thus far is the ongoing "deleveraging" process. From 2009:Q3 to 2011:Q3, aggregate household debt declined by about $1.5 trillion in real terms, with mortgage debt falling by about $1 trillion. Other than defaults, the factors...

This paper evaluates the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA), a law mandating that banks help meet the credit needs of lower income households and neighborhoods. To measure the effect of the law on lending to targeted groups since 1994, I take advantage of discontinuous targeting rules and abrupt...

This article presents a number of key findings from a review of the data that mortgage lending institutions reported for 2011 under the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA). The article documents home-lending activity reflected in the HMDA data and places the 2011 activity in historical context....

This article describes mortgage lending activity in 2012 based on newly available data reported under the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act of 1975 (HMDA). In addition, we present the results of a first look at a new data set composed of HMDA records matched to borrowers' credit records. The matched...

This article presents a number of key findings from a review of the data that mortgage lending institutions reported for 2010 under the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA). The article documents home-purchase lending activity reflected in the HMDA data and discusses how the ending of the...

The data that mortgage lending institutions reported for 2008 under the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act of 1975 (HMDA) reflect the ongoing difficulties in the housing and mortgage markets. This article presents a number of key findings from a review of the 2008 HMDA data. In particular, it...

This article presents a number of key findings from a review of the data that mortgage lending institutions reported for 2011 under the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA). The article documents home-lending activity reflected in the HMDA data and places the 2011 activity in historical context....