CRA Eligible Tracts and Tract Median Family Income as a percent of AMI
The Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) was passed by Congress in 1977 to encourage banks to extend credit to low and moderate income Americans. The Act was a response to redlining, a common practice involving systematically denying credit or increasing the costs of banking services to communities based on income, race or other discrimination. In practice, CRA requires that each bank’s lending records be evaluated periodically. This evaluation record is taken into account when the institution applies for deposit facilities, including mergers and acquisitions. All depository institutions must collect the necessary data and submit reports annually.
Last time, we looked at the views of prisons that make up the most predominantly male census tracts. This time, we’ll look at some of the most female census tracts. As you may recall from the top 10 post on the subject, there are some prominent women’s prisons, such as the Danbury Federal Correctional Institute:
However, the top female census tracts also have some of the country’s prominent women’s colleges.
|
Census Tract |
County, State |
Estimated percent of all people who are women |
| 560900 |
Wayne, MI |
100% |
| 110200 |
Cayahoga, OH |
99.21% |
| 211100 |
Fairfield, CT |
99.15% |
| 821200 |
Hampshire, MA |
95.5% |
| 822000 |
Hampshire, MA |
95.48% |
| 103602 |
Oklahoma, OK |
91.54% |
| 022500 |
Philadelphia, PA |
85.3% |
| 006803 |
Honolulu, HI |
85% |
| 000100 |
Calhoun, MI |
83.33% |
| 011798 |
Honolulu, HI |
80% |
You may recall a little while ago, we looked at the top 10 census tracts in the country in terms of percentage male and female. If you don’t remember what was unique about many of these tracts, these might jog your memory:
Despite the struggling economy, the oceanside housing market showed admirable strength in the last quarter of 2009. Zip code 11937, located in The Hamptons, showed the greatest volume of sales at $796,525,999.00. With a median home sale price of $945,000 and a none-too-shabby 691 sales, 11937 seemed to weather the financial crisis with finesse for the close of 2009. This housing market performance in The Hamptons was tailed closely by the shore homes of Waikiki, for which zip code 96815 boasted a volume of $694,176,291. Although the median home sale price there was a bit lower, at $380,000, Waikiki’s number of sales ranked 9th in the nation at 1,147 for the fourth quarter, accounting for its impressive dollar volume.
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We’ve recently added some neat new demographic indicators to PolicyMap. We now have election data for the 2004 and 2008 national elections. Included are data for the Presidential, Senatorial, and House elections, as well the voter turnout rates. They are all available at the county and state level, except for the House of Representatives elections, which are available at the congressional district level.
These indicators are available on the map in two formats. The first is the familiar red/blue map that most people are accustomed to seeing in popular media, where red represents areas won by Republicans, and blue represents areas won by Democrats, and darker shades representing larger margins of victory.
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Small businesses lending is a marker of vitality, innovation and economic well being of a place. New businesses, often emerging in the form of small businesses, contribute to job creation as well as growth of other support industries to an area. Lending activity can indicate new business creation and a supportive business environment for entrepreneurs. Considering the recent economic crisis, the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) Small Business Lending data can help identify the areas in which lending institutions are investing or counties where entrepreneurs are improving their neighborhoods and local economies. A prevalence in small business lending also signifies that local entrepreneurs are finding opportunities to create and start new businesses—a sign of economic development and recovery. Below is a map of Michigan State and the distribution of small business loans greater than $100,000 and less than or equal to $250,000 made in 2008 from all originations and where lending institutions have focused their efforts.
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Preliminary county-level unemployment data for October 2009 is now available on PolicyMap. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, unemployment is higher than it was a year ago in all 372 metropolitan areas across the country. Nationally the average for November declined .2 percent from the previous month, but remains a hefty 10 percent. While President Obama considers federal jobs legislation, log in to PolicyMap to see how your county is faring.
The latest unemployment data for October is also now available on our first free widget. Just embed the code below to bring an interactive unemployment map to your website. If you downloaded the code last month, the widget automatically updates to the newest month of data.
Your visitors can zoom in, pan around and click on any area of the map to see the underlying unemployment statistics for any county in the nation. They can also toggle between months and years to see values for previous periods of time going all the way back to 2000. The darker shades on the map are counties with higher rates or numbers of unemployed persons. Below is how the widget will look and interact.
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The Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia works with PolicyMap to perform calculations on the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA) data that they find particularly useful. We’ve chosen to share these numbers with all PolicyMap users in the Mortgage Originations tab under “Federal Reserve Loan Calculations”. This year’s 2008 update to the Federal Reserve Bank’s calculations shows some interesting trends in manufactured home purchase loans from years previous.
To see where manufactured housing lending was on the rise, we considered counties with the highest percent change in the number of manufactured home purchase loans from 2006 to 2008. The places with the highest increase in these loans were primarily rural communities, and they were distributed across the nation fairly evenly. Adams county, CO and Toombs county, GA, topped the list with 200%+ increases in manufactured housing lending.
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By October 1st every year HUD releases final fair market rents (FMRs) for counties and metropolitan areas, which we display together as county subdivisions throughout the country. The FMR is an estimate of the monthly gross rent (shelter rent plus utilities) of privately-owned, safe, and decent rental housing. In addition to providing a snapshot of current, local rental markets, the FMR is used to determine payment amounts for HUDs Section 8 voucher programs, the Housing Choice Voucher Program and the Moderate Rehabilitation Single Room Occupancy Program.
For the newest FMR data select Owners & Renters > Fair Market Rents in the Add Data Layer menu.
FMRs are also used by HUD to calculate Qualified Census Tract (QCT) and Difficult to Develop Area (DDA) designations. Census tracts that are designated QCTs and DDAs are entitled to greater funding through the Low Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) program: the nation’s largest federal housing program for acquisition, rehabilitation or new construction of low income rental housing. A QCT is one where the median income is less than 60% of area median income; a DDA is a tract that has high construction, land, and utility costs relative to the area median gross income. Gulf Opportunity or GO Zones also qualify for greater funding through the LIHTC program. GoZones were mandated in 2005 in response to Hurricanes Katrina, Rita, and Wilma. GoZones are set to expire at the end of 2010.
For the 2010 QCT, DDA and Go Zone designations go to: Jobs & Economy > Federal Incentive Designations in the Add Data Layer menu.
For more detail on any of these programs or greater definitions, visit The Department of Housing and Urban Development’s website at www.hud.gov.
We’ve just posted the latest Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA) data recently released by the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council (FFIEC) for 2008. Last year’s 2007 HMDA data clearly reflected the trauma in the housing market, and the 2008 data reveals ongoing difficulties, as well.
With the annual release of the HMDA data, the Federal Reserve Bank issues a publication of preliminary findings in which they discuss trends and changes in the data from years previous. This year, the Federal Reserve focuses on the prevalence of Federal Housing Administration (FHA) loans made in the second half of 2008 (see HMDA 2008 Draft for more information). Here at PolicyMap, we decided to take a closer look at FHA lending across the nation to see where these changes were most apparent. We were particularly interested in FHA trends in light of the recent FHA audit that revealed cash reserve troubles (see this NY Times article for more information).
We took a look at the states with the highest percent change in FHA lending, and then dug deeper by considering the census tracts within those states to find the communities with the highest prevalence of FHA loans. Compared to the nation, whose FHA lending rose nearly 195%, California topped the list with a 4,415% increase, followed by Nevada, with a 2,036% spike. The only states with an increase of less than 75% were North Dakota and Mississippi, with increases of 53% and nearly 20%, respectively.
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