Black folk have been moving to Atlanta in droves for the last 20 years, and why not? Who doesn't have a cousin or college classmate who told them about the good jobs and cheap houses?Well, all that glitters ain't gold. A New York Times piece this week details how Atlanta has one of the biggest foreclosure problems in the country, even though its economy is stronger than many other places. One problem with the story though: it skipped over a very likely and obvious connection between that foreclosure rate and Atlanta's overwhelmingly black population.Nationwide the story's been the same with foreclosures: housing prices rose too fast, people took out exotic mortgages with adjustable interest rates to afford them, and when prices fell and rates rose, those people could neither sell the houses or afford the higher monthly payments on them.
But there's a lot of evidence that points out that African-Americans got the worst of it, because minorities were more likely to use risky loans to buy houses. It makes even more sense that Atlanta has a big foreclosure problem when you consider that it is full of college-educated, affluent African-Americans, who at least one study suggests were actually more likely to be using risky mortgages to buy than lower-income blacks.
1. Great post and you're right on the money with this! The Atlanta housing market here is crazy. I've been house hunting for the last couple of weeks and it is really sad the number of houses in pre-foreclosure and foreclosure. I'm talking about milion dollar homes sellling for half. Lack of education is the key. I think that race plays a major factor. Sadly, many of OUR people have a history of not educating ourselves about the long-term implications of short term gratification (i.e. rent-a-rim, buy-here-pay here, rent-to-own furniture and appliances...just to name a few).
Chinnette at 2:48PM on Jul 10th 2007