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Latinos are denied mortgages because they’re great savers. Really.

Published by USC Bedrosian Center on

KPCC-FM’s “Take Two” quoted Richard Green in an article titled “Latinos are denied mortgages because they’re great savers. Really.” Green commented on why Latinos are often denied mortgages despite large saving accounts.

That’s in part because lenders rely heavily on credit scores to make their decisions, and Latinos don’t build up a good score when they avoid credit cards in favor of cash built up in their savings.

“We have so many of them that are credit invisible,” says Richard Green, director and chair of the Lusk Center for Real Estate at USC and formerly with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. “They don’t have a credit score at all.”

He adds, “They are uncomfortable with the idea of credit, but ironically in the U.S., in order to get credit you have to use credit.”

Read the full post here.

Bedrosian Center