Women and Subprime Lending: An Essay Advocating Self-Regulation of the Mortgage Lending Industry,Symposium on Law as Transformative Agent: Thinking and Doing Law in New Categories

Abstract

The subsequent national mortgage foreclosure crisis that seemed almost 5 uncontrollable by 2007 ignited a mortgage-related financial crisis that affected the global market place. News media, business reports, government investigations, 6 regulatory inquiries, and citizen suits focused national attention on the housing crisis and the problems attending what soon came to be known as the "mortgage meltdown." A dual mortgage market had emerged in which subprime lending 7 disproportionately affected minorities (particularly blacks and Hispanics), women, and the elderly.8 Evidence of the disparate impact felt by certain minority borrowers is abundant and the evidence of gender disparities in subprime lending is intriguing. I described the problem of intentional steering of black borrowers into subprime products in an earlier article. I argued that the evidence of disparate impact felt 9 by minorities, combined with compelling statistical data developed in the course of my research on this issue, made the case for a finding of not only disparate impact but of steering—intentional discrimination—based upon race.