Skip to main content

Mortgage Prepayment, Race, and Monetary Policy

Authors explore refinancing rates by race and find that Black and Hispanic borrowers are much less likely to refinance their mortgages when rates go down, leaving significant monthly savings on the table. This has long-term implications for the ability of these families to keep their homes when markets turn and to maximize their wealth accumulation during good times.

Related Posts

  • Inequality and Insecurity in Retirement: Racial disparities in retirement plans in the U.S. and Massachusetts

    June 4, 2024

    Retirement assets are a large part of the wealth puzzle for families at the middle and upper end of the distribution.

  • Debt, Delinquency and Racial Disparities in Massachusetts

    May 17, 2024

    By Alyssa Haywoode and Peter Ciurczak Debt has several faces. Borrowing money for long-term investments can be beneficial because it allows individuals or businesses to leverage capital they don’t currently…

  • Breaking Down Asset Types by Race

    April 11, 2024

    By Peter Ciurczak Net wealth is the difference of two values; that is, assets (the positive side of the ledger) minus liabilities, or debt (the negative side).  While most of…