TheMReport — News and strategies for the evolving mortgage marketplace.
Issue link: http://digital.themreport.com/i/868742
TH E M R EP O RT | 9 MONTH IN REVIEW Busting Boundaries Once relegated to less-than-significant status, women and others in historically marginalized U.S. sectors are making huge headways—and headlines, to boot. B ack in the day, having a lady at the helm of an organization, of an initiative, of pretty much anythin was a rarity. Truth be told, diversity, both as a general concept and a guid- ing principle, was essentially nonexistent. (A magazine championing women in housing, for instance, would have been unheard of.) Thankfully, because of pioneering people who pushed past the stereotypes and pushed toward equality, that's all changing. Today, all races, ethnicities, and genders are making strides and gaining ground. This month's newsmakers prove it. 1 At the National Association of Real Estate Brokers' 70th Annual Convention in August, Federal Housing and Finance Agency Director Mel Watt brought up issues facing African-American homeowners and what can be done to fill critical parts of the real estate brokers' mission: ensuring access to credit and ensuring sustainable homeownership for African-Americans. 2 According to Watt, the reasons African-American homeownership has declined start with historical factors: disproportionate African-American unemployment and under- employment, low and stagnant wages, nonexistent and depleted savings, and lower wealth in general. In addition to this, bad business practices such as subprime lending and predatory lending that targeted minorities with mortgages that were designed to fail, many other things, contributed to the slump. 3 According to a new analysis conducted by real estate database Redfin and PayScale, a company that gathers data of individual salary profiles, the gender pay gap is half the size at technology companies with more women executives. Based on this research, it was discovered that companies with more women executives have a two-cent pay gap. So for every dollar men earn, women earn 98 cents. While a mere two pennies might not sound like much, it adds up. In fact, the study noted that this inequality adds up to tens of thousands of dollars over a 4 Department of Housing & Urban Development (HUD) announced last month that it is continuing its commitment to fighting discrimination in housing by making available grants totally $38 million through its Fair Housing Initiatives Program (FHIP). The funding supports multiple fair-housing activities, including testing, outreach activities, public education, and building capacity. The FHIP is an effort by HUD to bring together fair-housing organizations and other nonprofits to assist people who believe they've fallen victim to discrimination. Organizations send out testers—who are both non-Hispanic whites and minorities—with the same financial qualifications to see if they are treated differently when looking for housing opportunities. 5 Middle-income LGBTQ Americans report more financial struggles—and less overall financial security—than other U.S. residents, according to recent research from Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Co., also known as MassMutual. Just under half say they don't feel financially secure and 60 percent worry daily about their household's financial situation. 6 The number of Americans paying more to live in substandard conditions increased between 2013 and 2015, according to a new report released last month by the U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development (HUD). In fact, in 2015, HUD found that 8.3 million very low- income unassisted families paid more than half their monthly income for rent, lived in severely substandard housing, or both. The agency referred to such residents as "worst-case needs" residents. But the number of households with worst-case needs divided fairly evenly across racial and ethnic groups. The prevalence of worst-case needs during 2015 was 47 percent for Hispanic renters, 45 percent for non-Hispanic white renters, 37 percent for non- Hispanic black renters, and 41 percent for others. 7 According to a recent report by LendingTree, men and women born between 1980 and 1995 are quite different when it comes to debt, credit score, income, and more. One of the more generally known topics is that males make more than their female counterparts. The study reported the average income for the millennial man was $53,220, but the average woman was slightly lower at $46,990—a 13.5 percent difference. Though millennials are known to prefer renting to buying, of those who have purchased homes, men also had a higher percentage. Women were found to be twice as likely as men to live with friends or family rent free, with only 44 percent owning homes. Over half of men—56 percent—are homeowners.