Working Paper
The Higher Price of Mortgage Financing for Native Americans
Abstract: A?ordable access to capital and quality housing is a challenge facing Native Americans. In this paper, we demonstrate that mortgage loans with Native Americans as the primary borrower are systematically more likely to be higher-priced. These loans have an average interest rate nearly 2 percentage points above the average loan for non-Native Americans. We also demonstrate that these higher-priced home loans are predominately found on reservation lands and that manufactured homes account for nearly 25 percent to 35 percent of the di?erence in the cost of ?nancing. These results potentially suggest that without other institutional market reforms, promoting homeownership as a method of increasing Native American equity and assets may be less e?ective than for other populations.
Keywords: Indigenous peoples; Native Americans; Mortgage Financing; Home ownership;
JEL Classification: D31; G21; J15;
Authors
Bibliographic Information
Provider: Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis
Part of Series: Center for Indian Country Development series
Publication Date: 2019-10-04
Number: 4-2019
Pages: 40 pages
Note: https://www.minneapolisfed.org/indiancountry/research-and-articles/cicd-working-paper-series/201906-the-higher-price-of-mortgage-financing-for-native-americans