San Francisco Chronicle: Foreclosures in state hit Latino homes hardest

[marmar]

A review of the damage wreaked on California communities by the housing bust shows that Latino households suffered nearly 50 percent of the foreclosures and that loan defaults are concentrated in the state's Central Valley.

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." ..........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/08/18/MNMR1EVAJ5.DTL&tsp=1#ixzz0wxlWBiwF

[ProgressiveProfessor]

1. An interesting corollary would be how long they had owned the homes

There have been accusations of Hispanic brokers taking advantage of new Hispanic buyers in California