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Indianapolis mortgage loans: Black homeownership declines

Although the number of homes in Marion County has increased since 2010, overall homeownership has decreased to just 54{797b2db22838fb4c5c6528cb4bf0d5060811ff68c73c9b00453f5f3f4ad9306b}, lower than state and nationwide averages, according to a new report on mortgage lending, released Monday by the Fair Housing Coalition of Central Indiana.

Driving that decrease in Marion County is a decline in homeownership in Black neighborhoods, the report found.

Although white homeownership rates have remained relatively unchanged for the past 50 years, the report found Black homeownership rates in Marion County have declined by about 30{797b2db22838fb4c5c6528cb4bf0d5060811ff68c73c9b00453f5f3f4ad9306b} in that time. Meanwhile, homeownership rates among Hispanic residents in 2020 are about three-fifths what they were in 1970. 

IU law professor Kevin Brown called the report “damning” evidence of systemic racial discrimination. It found that Black and Hispanic borrowers in Marion County are denied mortgage loans at significantly higher rates than average. Even when they do receive loans, their interest rates tend to be 30{797b2db22838fb4c5c6528cb4bf0d5060811ff68c73c9b00453f5f3f4ad9306b} to 40{797b2db22838fb4c5c6528cb4bf0d5060811ff68c73c9b00453f5f3f4ad9306b} higher than other borrowers, the report said.