Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Your Local Bank Provides Better Mortgage Deals.

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The proportion of high cost mortgages by banks in their local metropolitan area markets was compared to the proportion of high cost mortgages originated by banks in their non-local metropolitan areas. Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA) data was used in the study. Originated mortgages having a reportable rate spread was classified as a high interest rate (or high cost) mortgage. A bank’s mortgage was local when the mortgage secured a property located in a metropolitan area where the bank had at least one retail branch office. A bank’s mortgage was non-local when the mortgage secured a property in a metropolitan area where the bank had no retail branch office. The finding (see chart) was that from 2004 through 2007 banks were more than two times more likely to originate high cost mortgages in metropolitan areas were they do not have branch offices.
Carpetbaggers!

1 comment:

Oplify said...

This is an interesting finding. Just like we are encouraged to "eat locally", we should also "bank locally". Besides, non-local banks tend to be large national ones that have become "too big to fail". So let's shrink them by getting our mortgages from local banks and credit unions!

I speak for Oplify.com, we help people find local branches on our customized maps.