Mortgage lending disparities in Metropolitan Buffalo: Implications for community reinvestment policy

This article examines patterns of mortgage lending in metropolitan Buffalo, New York. The analysis is based on 1999-2002 HMDA data and 2000 Census data for metropolitan Buffalo. Mortgage lending patterns in census tracts are compared using descriptive statistics, GIS mapping, and multiple regression. The results from this analysis indicate that disparities in mortgage lending between census tracts are attributable to differences in: educational attainment, neighborhood socioeconomic distress, residential stability, and the age of neighborhood housing stock. It is noteworthy that after controlling for other variables, race and core city location did not significantly affect mortgage lending patterns. The findings from this analysis indicate that disinvestment is no longer confined to minority communities in core cities. Instead, it is becoming a more general phenomenon in metropolitan areas. Policy recommendations are forwarded in light of the findings from this research.