Banks Let Foreclosed Homes Rot In Black, Latino Neighborhoods

Housing alliance says practice keeps property values down, increases crime rate

Ugly, boarded-up homes, leaning hopelessly on their foundations are plentiful in urban and minority neighborhoods..

A new study (PDF) finds this is most likely because the banks that own them are keeping them that way.

The National Fair Housing Alliance released a report of their study that found foreclosed homes in predominantly black and Latino areas “were far more likely than those in predominantly white area to be left in disrepair,” the Washington Post reports.

Failure to maintain the homes drives down surrounding property values, increases crime and promotes vagrancy. It also makes it harder for the homes to be sold, the NFHA found.

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“The inferior way in which banks maintain and market their REO properties in communities of color actually changes the character of and serves to degrade the quality of life in these neighborhoods,” according to the report.

Black and Latino households were disproportionately affected by the foreclosure crisis, due largely to predatory lending practices, which were more severe for minorities.

The NFHA studied minority neighborhoods in nine cities, but did not name the bank that owned the investigated properties.

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