We attended a conference titled "Diversity in Financial Services: The Impact of Dodd-Frank" held from June 22-24, 2011 at the Westin Arlington Gateway, Arlington, VA.
We opened the conference by speaking on a panel covering Dodd/Frank Section 342. Moderating the panel was Mikail Moore, Chief of Staff, Congresswoman Maxine Waters, US House of Representatives. Other panelists were Darlene R. Slaughter, Vice President, Chief Diversity Officer, Fannie Mae and Leslie R. Crawford, Deputy Director, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation.
The speaker at General Session IV was Beryl Satter, author of Family Properties: Race, Real Estate, and the Exploitation of Black Urban America. She discussed the current state of the mortgage markets and placed recent history in context. Her book is perhaps the best exploration of race and the urban real estate market.
This is a rare and powerful book which combines socioeconomic trends, the history of the civil rights movement and detailed family history. As noted by Ms. Satter, "In the 1950’s, 85% of properties sold to blacks in Chicago were sold on contract (on exploitative terms). ..speculators were robbing blacks of $1 million dollars per day."
That’s 365 million per year. At 5% interest rate compounded over 60 years (1950 to 2010), this adds up to $135 BILLION dollars in lost wealth in Chicago's Black community. Multiply this by other urban real estate markets around the country, and the total loss adds up to well over $5 TRILLION dollars.
This explains, completely, the wealth gap between blacks and whites.