Why is mortgage discrimination illegal? A fresh look at the mortgage discrimination debate

After nearly 40 years of regulatory efforts to eliminate discrimination in the housing-finance market, it seems that the core inequalities that spurred civil-rights legislation are far from eliminated. Indeed, academics, policymakers, and industry participants have been unable to reach a consensus as to whether there is widespread discrimination in the mortgage market, let alone how to rectify it. At the root of this problem is a lack of agreement about what constitutes illegal discrimination and why society should eliminate it. The current debate over discrimination in mortgage lending is reviewed, and what constitutes mortgage discrimination and the purpose of antidiscrimination laws are explored. It is argued that disagreements over those 2 issues underlie much of the current controversy about the pervasiveness of mortgage discrimination.