Centering GSE 2020 Oregon Loan Acquisitions on Minority Borrowers and Co-Borrowers.

In my most recent post this week I included a link to a new Excel workbook I created that included loan level detail for 163,000 GSE (Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac] loan acquisitions in Oregon in 2020.

I have now added 11 new worksheets to the GSE Excel file I created earlier HERE . The file is slightly larger at 135 MB, but the link and file name remain the same.

These worksheets focus exclusively on minority loans acquired by the GSE‘s in Oregon in 2020.

First, there is a two page summary of loans acquired for borrower or co-borrowers in four minority racial categories and for Hispanic borrowers or co-borrowers. That PDF file is HERE and the summary section is pasted below.

Then there are five pivot tables and five related data worksheets for Hispanic, American Indian or Alaska Native, Asian, Black, and Native Hawaiian Islander or other Pacific Islander borrower or co-borrowers.

Share of  Oregon GSE Loans: Four Minority Racial Categories and Hispanics 

The data shows that 5.9%/13,358 of all 163,089 loan acquisitions were for borrower or co-borrowers in 4 racial minority categories and 8.2%%/9,558 were for Hispanic borrower or co-borrowers.

For (43,640) home purchase loans those shares were 9.4%/4,088 (four minority racial categories) and 7.6%./3,324 (Hispanics).

And for (18,884) first time homebuyer loans those shares were 11.3%/2,136  (four minority racial categories)  and 9.9%/1,869 (Hispanics).

Many GSE Minority Loans Acquired Were FHA Insured Loans

84% of all loans reported by the GSE‘s for four minority racial categories were FHA insured loans. FHA insured loans were 80% of all Hispanic loans acquired by the GSE’s.

That FHA share drops to about 48% for home purchase loans for the four minority racial categories and 44% for Hispanic home purchase loans. 

And, perhaps because of rules that may have restricted how government guaranteed loans can be counted toward GSE goals, the percentage of FHA insured loans for first time homebuyer loans acquired for the four minority racial categories, and for Hispanics, was reported as ZERO.

Note that the GSE FHA loan counts are NOT all 2020 Oregon FHA loans made to borrowers and Co-borrowers in the four racial categories or to Hispanics, just those loans that were FHA insured and then acquired by GSE’s.

Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog.

Washington State Has Their Draft Pilot Homeowner Assistance Plan Out for Public Comment.

Washington state has their 11 page draft pilot plan to spend 10% ($17.315M) of their Homeowner Assistance Fund allocation out for public comment through June 7th. 

I have downloaded their draft HERE; their webpage for HAF is HERE. 

My observations:

1. Only 10% of total HAF allocation is included in plan. Draft indicates that Treasury requires a plan OR a date for submission for a plan by June 30th. This draft clearly is intended to be a plan that meets the Treasury deadline by being a plan with a date ("in the next few months") for submission of a (FULL) plan.  
2. No geographic targeting or set aside; appears to be  first come, first served. 
3. No data provided on location or concentration of seriously delinquent loans or presumptively socially disadvantaged homeowners. 
4. Income limits at 100%, NO assistance for 100% to 150% median income homeowners (the Treasury Plan limit available after 60% of funds are spent at or below 100%).
5. No actual income limits by county and household size are included. 
6. Max assistance per homeowner is $25,000 unless you’re in a socially disadvantaged group and then it could increase by 50% /$12,500. [Page 7-8].
7. Several existing programs will be funded by HAF. 
8. Admin and IT cost is about 10%.
9. Actual HAF amount available for direct benefit to home owners appears to be about 66% ($11.485M) of the total of $17.315 M. [Page 10 and table below].

Table here from page 10 shows planned fund expenditures: 

Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog. 

Oregon 2019 HMDA Loans Data Includes Worksheet and Pivot Table of Black Home Loans.

On June 24th the FFIEC made 2019 HMDA home loan data available for download HERE.  

Unlike prior year HMDA data products from the CFPB, the FFIEC did NOT make it easy to extract data; many of the data fields use codes instead of names. Their browser tool also only allows the selection of two variables at a time for downloads. 

Nonetheless the 2019 HMDA data is useful and has been expanded to include 98 data fields. (These fields are listed in the Excel workbook I created; see below). Also, the 2019 HMDA data was posted on a much more timely basis than I recall when prior year uploads typically happened in September or October of the following year. 

Because the data is valuable and timely I took the time to download the HMDA loan registry (LAR) data for Oregon. I also added  4 columns with NAMES to substitute for codes: Metro names, county names, a name for the outcome of the loan application (Loan originated, denied etc) and a name for loan purpose. Note that the data that I downloaded does not include lender names; that would require downloading and matching loan data with lender data. 

The LARGE Excel workbook (149 MB's I created is HERE.
It contains these worksheets:

1. All data on 2,469 Black loan applications.
2. A pivot table of Black loan applications whose default view is the number of loan applications by county and their disposition. It also includes a filter that can focus on loan purpose (Purchase, refinance ETC) and loan type (FHA, conventional ETC)
3. All data on 264,983 loan applications.
4. A pivot table of all loan applications. The default view is of the count of loan applications and their disposition broken out by race. It also includes a filter that can focus on loan purpose (Purchase, refinance ETC) and loan type (FHA, conventional ETC)
5. A lookup table that includes MSA, county, loan purpose, and disposition values
6. An error table that includes 982 import errors (3.7 errors per 1,000 loans)
7. A table that lists all the 98 fields in the HMDA data (plus the 4 field names that I added.)

Example: Black Loans in 3 County Portland Metro Area. 
Below is a picture of a data table I created within the Black loan pivot table that shows the disposition of 1,837 Black loan applications from three Portland metro counties: 
990 loans were originated, 
67 were purchased (usually by Fannie and Freddie) and 
the remainder [780] did not result in loans. 

Notes: 

• While I included a separate worksheet for Black loan applications it's simple to use a filter within the all loan application worksheet to extract data for other racial and ethnic groups. Look for the "derived ethnicity" and/or the "derived race" columns. The Pivot table for all loan applications will also allow this focus.
• My prior HMDA related posts can be viewed HERE. 

Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog.

New Report: Disparities in Mortgage Lending and Foreclosures.

Report, from Center for Responsible Lending in North Carolina, is HERE.  No Oregon or Portland data, but important findings like those shown in this graph and in these excerpts:

Racial and ethnic differences in foreclosure rates persist even after accounting for differences in borrower incomes.
Racial and ethnic disparities in foreclosure rates cannot be explained by income, since disparities persist even among higher-income groups. For example, approximately 10 percent of higher-income African-American borrowers and 15 percent of higher-income Latino borrowers have lost their home to foreclosure, compared with 4.6 percent of higher income non-Hispanic white borrowers. Overall, low- and moderate-income African Americans and middle- and higher-income Latinos have experienced the highest foreclosure rates

Loan type and race and ethnicity are strongly linked.
African Americans and Latinos were much more likely to receive high interest rate (subprime) loans and loans with features that are associated with higher foreclosures,specifically prepayment penalties and hybrid or option ARMs. ... the disparities were especially pronounced for borrowers with higher credit scores. For example, among borrowers with a FICO score of over 660 (indicating good credit), African Americans and Latinos received a high interest rate loan more than three times as often as white borrowers.

Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog.

New Tool to Search 233,000 Oregon HMDA 2010 Housing Loan Applications.

In time for the OHCS Housing Conference this week I have put together an Excel workbook HERE with HMDA data for all Oregon MSA's for 2010 [Database also includes Clark and Skamania counties in Washington state as they are in Portland MSA]. 

This Excel 2007/2010 file includes data on 233,512 Oregon residential loan applications in 2010. (NOTE: File is large at 100+ MB's; that's because it contains 71 fields for each loan application/record -more than 16.5 MILLON pieces of data. 

To download the file do NOT attempt to open file within the browser but instead right click file link and save to your PC; be patient as it will take a few minutes to download. A PC with lots of memory and a higher processor speed is recommended.

This database starts with 46 fields of HMDA  2010 data that I downloaded for each Oregon MSA from FFIEC. I then added 25 fields of data to the right of the HMDA data that substitute NAMES values for CODE values that appear in several HMDA fields. [The code sheet for Loan Application Register data from FFIEC is HERE].

Example: HMDA data uses a minority race code of "3" for African American applicants, I added a NAME race code field that that shows "African American".
 
I ALSO merged the HMDA Oregon MSA data with several fields from the "Reporter" HMDA database to add NAMES to codes used to show which lender reported the data, where the lender was located etc. 

The end result is a database that shows at census tract, county, MSA, and state levels:

• Demographic data for each loan applicant, including income, race, ethnicity, and sex.
• Demographic data for the census tract and metro area for the property.
• The loan type [FHA etc], purpose [purchase/refinance etc], loan amount/spread.
• The outcome of each loan application and reasons for denial.
• The lender who reported the loan application result.

As a tease of what's in the workbook the legal sized PDF HERE [worksheet 3 in the workbook] shows for Oregon only, owner occupied home purchase originations by loan type [FHA etc] by ethnicity and then by race.  The table shows :

• That 61.6% of owner occupied home purchase loan originations for Hispanics were FHA loans, compared to an FHA share of owner occupied home purchase orginations to non Hispanics of 39.8%.

• That FHA had 61.9% of the owner occupied home purchase African American loan originations, but only 41.3% of owner occupied home purchase white loan originations

To go deeper I have provided a PIVOT table in the workbook allowing users to EASILY slice and dice the HMDA data in countless ways.

The Pivot default in the workbook is set for Oregon ONLY to retrieve by borrower race, the number of Owner occupied, Home Purchase Principle Residence Loan Originations by loan program (FHA, VA, Conventional, RD).


A short summary of some of the additional data the Pivot table can reveal: 

Subtotal, OREGON Only Owner Occupied Loan Originations Summary, Excluding Manufactured Housing:

• 23,334 Owner Occupied Principle Residence Home Purchase Loan Originations
• 64,128 Owner Occupied Principle Residence Home Refinance Originations

Subtotal, Oregon Only Manufactured Home Loan Originations

• 1,599 Manufactured Home Loan Originations; of those only 576 were Owner Occupied Principle Residence Home Purchase Loan Originations.

Subtotal, Washington State ONLY(Clark County+Skamania County) [Skamania county loans have a  Washington State Code and a "59" county code or a "N/A" code in the County Name Field].

• Excluding Manufactured Housing, 30,276 Loan Applications. 
• 450 Manufactured Housing Loan Applications.

While these are STATE level examples, similar data can be retrieved at the census tract, county, and MSA levels. (Database doesn't include a city data field, but CT data could be combined with other data sources to arrive at summaries at the City level).

The complete list of worksheets in the workbook : 

READ ME
1 Pivot
2 Oregon MSA HMDA Data 2010
3 OO Home Purchase Race OR
4 Race Ethnic  by County
5. Race Eth Originations Cnty
6. 2010 Reporter

Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog.

First Guest Post, Jon Gail: Time to Tackle the Root Cause.

Notes: 

As I said in June HERE, I was looking to add housing related guest posts from others, so long as they weren't rants etc. 

Today I am pleased to add the first guest post from Jon Gail. Jon is a long time respected colleague who previously served as the SF bond program manager for the State of Oregon and also as a Community Outreach and Information Rep. for the Portland Housing Bureau. After leaving the agency this summer he started First HomeAdvisor.com, a new website focused on connecting first-time home buyers to related federal, state and local home buying programs. Jon is also a long time board member for the African American Alliance for Homeownership/AAAH.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Oregon Housing Blog Guest Post: 

Time to Tackle the Root Cause

Jon Gail, First HomeAdvisor.com

The recent article in the Oregonian by Hannah Nikole-Jones and research by Tom Cusack show that despite population growth fewer black households in Portland own homes in 2010 than owned homes in 2000.   This fact is disturbing especially when you consider that a lot of people in the housing industry, including myself, have invested significant time and resources attempting to increase the African American home ownership rates in Portland over the past decade.   Clearly our efforts failed and a new approach is desperately needed.
 

The fundamental flaw in our approach is that we are not tackling the root cause of the problem.  In order to afford to buy and maintain a home in Portland, most of us require a stable and relatively high paying job or perhaps two decent paying jobs.   To get a high paying or at least a decent paying job, one needs to have the necessary certifications, skills, experience and opportunity to be hired for these better paying jobs.    
 

Therefore, in order to eventually raise the home ownership rates for African Americans in Portland, the goals first need to be to lower the unemployment rates, increase the household incomes, lower the drop-out rates, increase the levels of educational attainment, and eliminate the economic and other barriers that African Americans face when attempting to prepare for, get and keep a family wage job. 
 

We also need to better align our social support systems of housing, welfare, insurance, and education to enhance and develop the long-term self-sufficiency and employment opportunities for African American households.  Improved collaboration is needed among our social support agencies and systems to help African American households to not to just survive, but to thrive in Portland. 
 

While addressing the root cause of the problem may seem daunting, it is the only way we are going to have a chance to make a positive change to these disturbing disparities.  It is time to start a fresh new approach to closing the African American home ownership rate gap by helping African Americans secure good paying jobs and earn a decent living.  Once we do that, improved home ownership rates will follow.

Originally published on the Oregon Housing Blog.

25 Metro Cities, 2010 Census: Minority Home Ownership Rates and Gaps, With Rankings.

My prior post HERE presented Census 2010 home ownership rates and gaps, with rankings, for the 8 largest cities in Oregon within Metro's jurisdiction.

This is an expanded version of the same analysis for all 25 Oregon cities in Metro's jurisdiction.  The PDF file HERE has four tables:

1. Owner Occupant Household Counts
2. Home Ownership Rates
3. Minority Home Ownership Gaps
4. Best to Worst Home Ownership Rankings, Including 12 Minority Home Ownership Rate and Gap Rankings 

Observations:

1. Lake Oswego, which had ranked the highest among 8 largest city on 8 of 12 minority home ownership metrics, does not rank highest on any dimension when the other 17 cities are added. 
2. Wood Village, which has the highest diversity index rating of these 25 cites, has no minority home ownership rate ranking higher than 10th. This suggests that diversity index scores may not be correlated with minority home ownership rates OR, if correlated at all, there may be a negative correlation, meaning that a higher diversity index value could have some degree of association with a lower minority home ownership rate. [See my March 2011 post with diversity index ratings and rankings for these 25 cities HERE].
3. Portland's highest ranking is 12th, on its African American home ownership gap.
4. Beaverton, Durham, Fairview, Gresham, Tualatin, and Wilsonville all have a number of 20+ rankings, in the bottom 5th of these cities.

Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog.

Who Knew? In 2010, Among 8 Largest Cities in Portland Metro in Oregon, Lake Oswego Had Highest Minority Home Ownership Rankings.

I have prepared a Census 2010 sourced table that shows  home ownership rate data, including minority home ownership rate data and gaps, for the 8 Oregon cities in the jurisdiction of Metro with 10,000 or more total households. 

The two page table also includes rankings from best to worst (1 to 8) on 12 different minority home ownership metrics and best to worst rankings on 2 other metrics for overall homeownership rate and the white, non Hispanic home ownership rate.


Finally in the far left hand column on the first page the total counts of home owners and home ownership rates for all 25 cities in Metro's jurisdiction are shown.

The table is HERE and it has some surprises, especially with rankings found on page 2:

1. On 12 different metrics of minority home ownership, Lake Oswego has the highest/best ranking on 8 of those metrics.
2. Using those same 12 minority home ownership metrics, Tualatin was ranked the lowest/worst on 5 of these metrics.
3. Portland does not rank the highest or the lowest in any of the 12 minority home ownership metrics. It did have the 2nd lowest/best all minority home ownership rate gap.
4. Beaverton is ranked the lowest on 3 of the 12 minority home ownership metrics. And, among these 8 Portland metro cities, it also had the lowest overall home ownership rate, and the lowest white non Hispanic home ownership rate. 

Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog.

City of Portland Tenure Changes, 1990-2010; Some Minority Progress BUT African American Home Owner Declines Significant.

I have prepared a comprehensive new table HERE that provide a comparison of City of Portland tenure information for 1990, 2000, and newly released 2010 data.

The table includes breakouts for 1990, 2000, and 2010 of:

• Owner Occupied Households.
• All Households
• Rental Households
• Home Ownership Rates
• Home Ownership Gaps
• Share of Total Households

These household breakouts are further detailed for 

• White non Hispanics
• African Americans
• Asian + Pacific Islanders
• Alaska Natives and American Indians
• Hispanics
• All Minorities

In addition to numerical counts for 1990,2000, and 2010, in columns to the right the table shows numerical and % changes for 1990-2000, for 2000-2010, and for 1990-2010. 

Yellow highlighted cells in these columns show % declines or, for minority home ownership gaps, % increases.

For now I have labelled the report as DRAFT in hopes other eyes will confirm the accuracy of the data presented and/or point out any errors. 

My Initial Observations: (I encourage you to add your comments/observations to the bottom of this post). 

Home ownership Rates and Gaps

1. In last decade home ownership rates declined for all groups except Asian+ Pac Islanders. (Rates actually declined for Pac Islander share of that grouping). 
2. Over 20 year period only ONE group saw a decline in HO Rates--African Americans whose rate declined from 37.6% in 1990 to 32.4% in 2010, a 20 year decline of 14%. 
3. In last decade there was a loss of 482 African American home owner households vs. an increase of 583 in the preceding decade. 
4. Because there was a statewide net increase of 813 African American home owner HH's in the last decade, this means that during that decade there was an increase of 1,295 African American home owner HH's OUTSIDE of the City of Portland.
5. The 2010 HO rate for Asian+ Pac Islanders is higher than the white non Hispanic HO Rate (58.2% vs. 57%).
6. Over last decade the gap between African American and white non Hispanic HO rates increased by 39% while the gap for Asian+Pac Islanders declined by 130%, and by 29% for Hispanic. ["Gap" is the % by which minority group HO rate has to increase to reach white, non Hispanic HO rate].
7. The 76% gap between between African American and white non Hispanic HO rates in 2010 was 63% higher than the 47% gap in 1990.
8. In last decade, minority home owner households grew at a rate 7 times the growth rate for white, non Hispanic home owner growth, 28% vs. 4%.

Renter and All Household Demographics

1. Minority renter HH's grew by 28% during the last decade vs 13% growth for white non Hispanic renter HH's. 
2. Minority households made up 18% of all households in 2010 vs 13% in 1990.
3. Over 20 years from 1990-2010 there was a net increase of 2,211 African American households. Only 101 [4.6%] of those were home owner households, with the remainder [2,110/95.4%] being renter households.
4. In last decade Hispanic HH's accounted for 56% of all minority HH growth ( 5,550 /9,949) and 22% of all HH growth (5,550/24,809).
   

 

Data sources:   

• 2010 Census.
• 1990 -2000 data is from PDF page 18 of a 2004 Report to Portland City Council, Strategies to Increase Minority Home Ownership Rates 

(While at HUD, I contributed as a member on an advisory committee to this report).

Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog.

Minority-White Wealth Gap Grows.

USA Today Story is HERE; NPR story is HERE.  

Full Pew report is HERE. 

(Graphic is from NPR story).

Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog.

Oregon Census 2010 WOWS: Growth in Under 18 Population Was ALL Minorities.

Media outlets in Oregon are picking up good Census 2010 stories; Oregonian 2010 coverage is HERE for example. 

I hope that these outlets pick up/confirm a quick analysis that I did this morning. 

IF my math is correct, the total under 18 population in Oregon would have DROPPED, except for the growth in minorities under 18, and especially Hispanics under 18.   

Table pasted below has the data. The "WOWS" I think are that:

1. Total under 18 population growth was less than 20,000,  a growth rate of only 2.4 %
2. The White, NON Hispanic under 18 population DECLINED by 73,000, 11.3%.
3. The Hispanic under 18 population increased by 72,000, 67.3%.
4. Other minority group under 18 populations increased by 8,000, 15%. 
5. While calculation is not shown in table, I calculate that the Non White Hispanic share of under 18 population dropped from 76% to 66% from 2000 to 2010. 
6. BOTTOM LINE: Without minority under 18 population growth, Oregon's under 18 population would have DECLINED. 

Click to Enlarge

IF you see any errors in my calculations, please DO let me know. 

Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog.

Quick Take Oregon Census 2010 Data: Hispanics Represented More than 40% of Population Growth, AND Numbers Grew MORE Than White Non Hispanics.

The Census Bureau has released Census 2010 redistricting information for Oregon today. Access today is for a LARGE FTP file, which is very complicated to work with; tomorrow same data is supposed to be available via a new version of the American Fact Finder website.

As a "Cliffs Notes" version, Census has released a summary series of  tables today in one Excel workbook . PR is HERE, Excel file is HERE:

My quick observations about enhanced table pasted below that I constructed using the Census Excel table as a starting point:

1. Overall, Oregon's population grew by 12%.
2. Oregon's White NOT Hispanic population grew by 5.2%.
3. Oregon's population growth for other minority races was substantial :African American, 24.3%; American Indian 17.7%; Asian 39.4%;Native Hawaiian, Pac Islander 68.1%.
4. Oregon's Hispanic population grew by 63.5 %.
5. The numerical increase in total Hispanic population [all races] exceeded that for White non Hispanics ( 174,748  vs. 148,232).
6. The growth in Hispanic population [all races] represented 42.7% of statewide population growth; white Non Hispanics represented a lesser 36.2% of total statewide population growth. 
7. "Two or More Races" accounted for 9.8% of total statewide population growth and "some other race" accounted for 14.6% of population growth.

Click to Enlarge

Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog.

Correction: Looks Like Kitzhaber Has a Kasich Like All White Cabinet Problem.

Correction: One of my sharp readers caught error in my table showing Erinn Kelley‐Siel as a male. I have corrected that in the table and also changed the female count and percentage to 6, 25% of the current cabinet. 
-------
Ohio's new Governor has been taken to task for initially appointing an all white cabinet (story HERE, includes update after naming his first minority cabinet member). 

It occurred to me that I didn't know the racial makeup of the cabinet members that Governor Kitzhaber has appointed to date, but I did know that he is letting go a Hispanic member of his cabinet, Victor Merced. 

Based on my research, Governor Kitzhaber currently DOES have a Kasich like problem--all of his 24 Cabinet members appear to be white (and only 6 (25%) are women).  

I constructed the table below after researching on line pictures of the current cabinet members with caveat that it is always possible that my reading of photo does not match racial or ethnic categories. ( Salem Statesman Journal story HERE helped significantly by including consolidated list of Cabinet officials and several photos). 

Comments

1. It is very ODD to me that no mainstream news story about the cabinet appointments that I have yet seen has picked up on the apparent all white nature of the current Oregon cabinet.
2. Looks to me like Kitzhaber has some significant outreach work to do to insure substantial minority and women participation in his cabinet. 

Click to Enlarge

Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog.

Unexpected: HAMP Data from Servicers Says, for Mods Where Race/Ethnicity Was Reported, More than Half of Mods Were for Minorities/ One Quarter Were Hispanic.

The latest HAMP reports are out and now include new loan level data files which are HUGE and will be a pain to analyze. (Treasury has done a minimal job in making the data user friendly and many data fields appear to be empty, including state and metro code fields).  

One thing that caught my eye is the Treasury national summary of loan mods by race and ethnicity. Their data shows that since December 2009, for those mods were race was reported, more than HALF of all loan mods were for minorities, and more than one quarter were Hispanic, as shown in the table below.  (Double click on table to increase visibility).

(HERE is data explanation from Treasury that includes this table from page 7. Note that preceding table on that page shows that race/ethnicity was not reported for 30%+ of applicants; including all applicants reduces minority/ Hispanic %'s significantly ). 

Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog.

Fannie Mae Own-Rent Analysis Released, Covering Four Themes.

Fannie Mae has released their latest Own-Rent analysis for themes 3 and 4 HERE. 

Earlier Fannie had released their analysis for themes 1 and 2 HERE. 

A summary of Fannie Mae analysis is HERE.

The 4 themes Fannie Mae examined were:

1. Persistence of the Homeownership Aspiration and Housing Choices Throughout the Lifecycle,
2. The Impact of Changing Demographics.
3. Economics of Owning and Renting Through the Cycle and Across Geographies.
4. Renting and Owning Behaviors by Race, Ethnicity, and Immigration Status.

Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog.

Lenders Using Tighter FICO Score Minimums than Required by FHA, Likely Impacting Minorities.

Bloomberg has story HERE:

Mortgage lenders including Wells Fargo & Co. and Bank of America Corp., the two largest, have raised the minimum credit score on FHA-insured loans that they will buy to 640 from 620. The FHA, which previously didn’t have minimums for FICO scores, began in October to require grades of at least 500, and more than 580 for loans with down payments of as little as 3.5 percent. Borrowers with scores between those levels must put 10 percent down. Several lenders moved minimums to about 620 at the start of 2009, the companies said then. Requiring a 640 credit score excludes as much as about 15 percent of FHA borrowers, David Stevens, the agency’s commissioner, said in an interview yesterday. Minorities and borrowers in communities hardest hit by the recession are most likely to lose based on FICO scores, he said.  

Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog.

State of Black Oregon Report.

From Urban League of Portland, PR is HERE; report is HERE.

Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog.

Oregon Population Change Excel Lookup Tool Includes Minority and Ethnic Pop Change Data.

I have constructed a powerful new Excel 2007 look up tool as a workbook HERE. (To allow maximum columns, file is formatted as landscape, legal size; file is called a look up because it extracts correct values for selections you make in each row from a hidden list of more than 3,800 possible values).

This tool focuses on Oregon county level population CHANGE from 2008-2009 and from 2000-2009, INCLUDING change by race and ethnicity; this is a subset of the consolidated Oregon county population table that I just posted as a 16 page PDF file (my prior post about that file is HERE).  

(NOTE: This new tool was created in Excel 2007 format.Some users report when they save Excel 2007 files they end up with a compressed .zip file extension. My suggestion is to RIGHT CLICK and save the file to your PC. Then navigate to the file you downloaded and look at its file extension. IF it appears as .ZIP extension, change the .ZIP extension to Excel 2007 extension (.xlsx), and THEN open the file with Excel 2007. [Please, no whining about not using Excel 1997 format, peeps, Excel 2010 is coming out this week!]).

My READ ME worksheet in this workbook explains what this tool can do, and the source of the data:

1.This workbook allows easy comparisons of Oregon County level population CHANGES from 2008-2009 and from 2000-2009.                   
2.Users can select ANY combination of race and county in first two columns and values for Total Population Change, Hispanic Population Change, Non Hispanic Population Change, and Hispanic Share of Total Population are then returned in the columns to the right.          
3.Default selection is for Oregon metro counties, first for "All Races", and then for "White alone", but the user may substitute for the default selections ANY combination of race and counties, in ANY order of their choosing.
4.Except for selection of race and county workbook values in first two columns the look up worksheet is password protected to prevent inadvertent data entry. The data source is a June 2010 Census release of 2009 county population estimates.

Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog.

Federal Reserve HMDA 2008 Data: FHA Market Share at 21%, But FHA Market Share for African Americans/Hispanics >45%.

AP news story HERE. (Draft of related Federal Reserve Board Bulletin article is HERE)

From AP story:

Loans backed by the Federal Housing Administration soared to 21 percent of all loans made last year from less than 5 percent in both 2005 and 2006.

For black borrowers, more than half of all loans were FHA-insured, more than triple a year earlier. For Hispanics, that number shot up to 45 percent, more than four times as high as in 2007.

Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog.

Oregon Homeownership and Tenure and State Rankings and Changes 2007-2006.

I have put together a summary of changes in Oregon homeownership rates and tenure using 2006 and 2007 American Community Survey data.

The PDF file HERE includes an Oregon summary and a detailed listing of HO rates for all states, including minority home ownership rates and ranks.

Summary of Rank Changes 07-06:

1. Oregon's overall HO rate ranked 44th. with no change from 2006.
2. African American HO rate ranking improved slightly from 39th. to 37th.
3. American Indian/Alaskan Native HO rate ranking improved slightly from 44th. to 43th.
4. Asian ranking declined from 10th to 13th.
5. Hawaiian Islander/Pac Island HO rate ranking improved from 20th. to 10th.--(I suspect this is an error as the count of renters decreased substantially).
   
6. White, NOT Hispanic HO rate ranking improved slightly from 47th. to 46th.
7. Hispanic HO rate ranking improved slightly from 36th. to 34th.
8. Oregon's Asian and Native Hawaiian/Pac Islander HO rates are the only Oregon HO rates that exceed the US average (and I think the Native Hawaiian/ Pac Islander rate is suspect).