And of course, even blacks who were eligible for standard mortgages were steered into expensive subprime mortgages:
Blacks are about twice as likely as whites to wind up in the more onerous and costly form of consumer bankruptcy as they try to dig out from their debts, a new study has found.
The disparity persisted even when the researchers adjusted for income, homeownership, assets and education. The evidence suggested that lawyers were disproportionately steering blacks into a process that was not as good for them financially, in part because of biases, whether conscious or unconscious.
The vast majority of debtors file under Chapter 7 of the bankruptcy code, which typically allows them to erase most debts in a matter of months. It tends to have a higher success rate and is less expensive than the alternative, Chapter 13, which requires debtors to dedicate their disposable income to paying back their debts for several years.
And, amazingly, new study finds blacks, compared to similaryly situated, econ situation whites, are steered into the most onerous form of bankruptcy — once those loans lead to the financial ruin.
Gee! How…intersting.
LINK to NYTimes article.