[Ol' Dan Tucker]

Yes, but which group was the biggest defaulter...Blacks, Hispanics, or illegal Hispanics? I would bet loans to illegals made up a very small pct. of the bad loans. I doubt the amount of illegals who defaulted could crash the system. The great bulk of bad loans went to blacks and legal Hispanics. But mostly blacks, and blacks are usually the group that defaults the most of any group of Americans.

Do you have a source that shows that the bulk of 'bad' loans went to legal hispanic aliens and for the bulk of defaults are from blacks?

I'm not challenging you, just asking for the details.

The information I've found shows that the number black homeowners were only slightly above hispanics, (49.4% for blacks and 49.8% for hispanic, legal and illegal) and that the level of homeownership of legal hispanics vs. illegals is about 8.9% higher. (71.5% for legals and 53.3% for illegals)

In the foreclosure data, there is no information about the race, ethnicity or nativity. But using correlations of foreclosure rates and immigrant share of the county population, the foreclosure rate for immigrant Latinos is higher than average. It's possible that the presence of immigrants in representative counties skews the data.

Like I say, race, ethnicity and nativity is not present in the national foreclosure data. But by population, hispanic communities have higher rates of foreclosures than non-hispanic communities.

See:
Mortgage Lending and Foreclosures in Immigrant Communities: Expanding Fair Housing and Fair Lending Opportunity Among Low Income and Undocumented Immigrants - PDF
Foreclosures by Race and Ethnicity - PDF
Minorities, Immigrants and Homeownership - Through Boom and Bust

[driftless2]

No, I have not been able to find a breakdown. But I've read several books on the matter, including one by Tom Sowell, who mostly put the blame on the Clinton admin. Again, I'm not saying Bush is blameless.

But the impetus of the enforcement of the CRA was not to help illegal aliens. Most of it was generated by people who wanted low income blacks to get easier loans. These people believed blacks were being discriminated against. Why lending institutions would turn down good loans to eligible people of any color was not explained. In short...they wouldn't.

It's just the black Americans were easily the biggest lending risks. And since blacks default at a much higher rate than other groups, I have to believe blacks with subprime loans were probably the biggest culprits.