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Adam Gordon
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115 Yale L.J. 186 (2005)
The Federal Government, in creating the section 203(b) mortgage insurance program during the New Deal, transformed homeownership in America into the main way that middle-class households build wealth. In the first three decades of the program's existence, however, this wealth-building opportunity was not shared with African-Americans. This Note reveals a pervasive, previously ignored regulatory system at both the state and federal level that gave the section 203(b) program a monopoly in offering the kinds of loans that first-time homebuyers needed. These statutes meant that even nongovernmental entities could not offer most African-Americans the opportunity to become homeowners. |