16. Leaseholds

This chapter first examines some of the more commonly encountered elements or clauses in most leases. Essentially, it sets out what one might expect to see in a lease of either residential or commercial property. The discussions then turn to the Council of Mortgage Lenders’ Handbook for Solicitors and Licensed Conveyancers England and Wales; defective leases; liability on covenants in leases: enforcement; granting new leases; existing leases; and enfranchisement.

16. Leaseholds

This chapter first examines some of the more commonly encountered elements or clauses in most leases. Essentially, it sets out what one might expect to see in a lease of either residential or commercial property. The discussions then turn to the Council of Mortgage Lenders’ Handbook for Solicitors and Licensed Conveyancers England and Wales; defective leases; liability on covenants in leases: enforcement; granting new leases; existing leases; and enfranchisement.

Do Minorities Pay More for Mortgages?

We test for racial discrimination in the prices charged by mortgage lenders. We construct a unique data set from which we observe the three dimensions of a mortgage’s price: the interest rate, discount points, and fees. Although we find statistically significant gaps by race and ethnicity in interest rates, these gaps are offset by differences in discount points. We trace out point-rate schedules and show that minorities and whites face identical schedules, but sort to different locations on the schedule. Such sorting may reflect systematic differences in liquidity or preferences. Finally, we find no differences in total fees by race or ethnicity.

Race for Profit

By the late 1960s and early 1970s, reeling from a wave of urban uprisings, politicians finally worked to end the practice of redlining. Reasoning that the turbulence could be calmed by turning Black city-dwellers into homeowners, they passed the Housing and Urban Development Act of 1968, and set about establishing policies to induce mortgage lenders and the real estate industry to treat Black homebuyers equally. The disaster that ensued revealed that racist exclusion had not been eradicated, but rather transmuted into a new phenomenon of predatory inclusion. Race for Profit uncovers how exploitative real estate practices continued well after housing discrimination was banned. The same racist structures and individuals remained intact after redlining’s end, and close relationships between regulators and the industry created incentives to ignore improprieties. Meanwhile, new policies meant to encourage low-income homeownership created new methods to exploit Black homeowners. The federal government guaranteed urban mortgages in an attempt to overcome resistance to lending to Black buyers – as if unprofitability, rather than racism, was the cause of housing segregation. Bankers, investors, and real estate agents took advantage of the perverse incentives, targeting the Black women most likely to fail to keep up their home payments and slip into foreclosure, multiplying their profits. As a result, by the end of the 1970s, the nation’s first programs to encourage Black homeownership ended with tens of thousands of foreclosures in Black communities across the country. The push to uplift Black homeownership had descended into a goldmine for realtors and mortgage lenders, and a ready-made cudgel for the champions of deregulation to wield against government intervention of any kind. Narrating the story of a sea-change in housing policy and its dire impact on African Americans, Race for Profit reveals how the urban core was transformed into a new frontier of cynical extraction.

16. Leaseholds

This chapter first examines some of the more commonly encountered elements or clauses in most leases. Essentially, it sets out what one might expect to see in a lease of either residential or commercial property. The discussions then turn to the Council of Mortgage Lenders’ Handbook for Solicitors and Licensed Conveyancers England and Wales; defective leases; liability on covenants in leases: enforcement; granting new leases; existing leases; and enfranchisement.

16. Leaseholds

This chapter first examines some of the more commonly encountered elements or clauses in most leases. Essentially, it sets out what one might expect to see in a lease of either residential or commercial property. The discussions then turn to the Council of Mortgage Lenders’ Handbook for Solicitors and Licensed Conveyancers England and Wales; defective leases; liability on covenants in leases: enforcement; granting new leases; existing leases; and enfranchisement.