In this blog post, we explore the widening of Chicago’s racial/ethnic gap in refinancing (refi gap) when mortgage interest rates fell to a historical low during the Covid-19 pandemic. Understanding why borrowers in majority Black and Hispanic neighborhoods fell behind at a financially opportune time offers insights into how improving access to mortgage interest saving... Read More

Through many conversations with community stakeholders between September and December 2021, we observed how community-serving organizations in Fort Wayne, IN, were working to overcome the pandemic’s challenges through coordinated efforts. This blog post highlights key themes and lessons learned based on the experiences of local leaders as they worked toward increasing the resiliency ... Read More

Opportunity Zones (OZs) are a placed-based federal income tax incentive that offers current and potential future tax benefits to investors on equity investments in new business and real estate activities in any of the over 8,700 census tracts designated as OZs. The stated goal of the incentive is to spur economic growth and job creation in neighborhoods where ... Read More

The Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) became law in 1977 and remains one of the seminal pieces of legislation to address systemic inequities in access to credit for low- and moderate-income (LMI) communities. The Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (together, the “agencies”) recently issued a... Read More

This blog post discusses the substantial role of cars and the loans that people use to pay for them in the lives of households with low and moderate incomes (LMI households).1 It highlights five key points: 1. Cars are an important source of wealth and provide substantial economic benefits while also being the largest source of debt for LMI households. 2. It is particularly costly fo... Read More

The Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) became law in 1977 and remains one of the seminal pieces of legislation to address systemic inequities in access to credit for low- and moderate-income (LMI) communities. The Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (together, the “agencies”) recently issu... Read More

The Community Development and Policy Studies (CDPS) group regularly invites knowledge leaders to share their work on topics relevant to low- and moderate-income communities. CDPS recently welcomed Amanda Kass to present her joint work with Phillip Rocco titled “Strengthening Local Government Finance: State and Federal Aid for a Crisis Era.” Kass discussed how ... Read More

On July 15, roughly 39 million families with children will begin receiving monthly payments from the expanded Child Tax Credit (CTC), which will continue through December of this year. In March, Congress passed the American Rescue Plan Act, which expanded eligibility for the CTC, increased the amount, and made it fully refundable. This means that eligible families can now receive the full CTC... Read More

From time to time, we use our blog to highlight the work of our partner organizations throughout the Seventh District to address the pandemic's effects. As we consider the pandemic's impact on small businesses, which have borne a great deal of hardship owing to the closings of and limitations placed upon restaurants, bars, and various retail establishments not considered essential, chambers of co... Read More

In 2017, Congress created a new federal income tax incentive intended to encourage long-term business investment in low-income census tracts designated as “opportunity zones.” One policy concern is that these tax incentives may benefit investors without any spillover benefits to existing residents and businesses within opportunity zones. This concern is based, in part, on the absence of a communi... Read More