Lower income minority neighborhoods have long been targets of predatory financial services that charge souped-up, near usurious interest rates, such as pawn shops, payday lenders and check cashing services. iIt all sounds like the redlining debate of yore. People have long assumed that subprime mortgage lenders also targeted these neighborhoods.

And that is the conclusion of a recent study just published in the American Sociological Review that used data from the 100 largest U.S. metropolitan areas. The study "found that living in a predominantly African-American area and to a lesser extent an Hispanic area were 'powerful predictors of foreclosures,'" notes Reuters.

What's really interesting is that "even African-Americans with similar credit profiles and down-payment ratios to white borrowers were more likely to receive subprime loans, according to the study."

This can be endlessly debated. Did subprime purveyors target minorities or were they merely targeting those with poor credit histories, many of whom just happened to be minorities? Does this fine of a distinction matter?

For more:
- here's the article

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