Prepared by: Alix S. Levy, Pittsburgh Community Reinvestment Group (PCRG), Research Analyst

The PCRG Annual Mortgage Lending Study provides a current portrait of mortgage lending trends in Allegheny County and the City of Pittsburgh. PCRG prepares this study using publicly available data designed to monitor the performance of financial institutions seeking to meet their community investment requirements under the Community Reinvestment Act.

The publicly-available lending data at the heart of this study is the result of two major pieces of legislation passed at the end of the Civil Rights Era – the CRA of 1977 and the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act of 1975 (HMDA).

The CRA was passed after much coordination between lawmakers and activists to address the pervasive redlining across urban and suburban America. The goal of the CRA is to encourage depository institutions to meet the credit needs of the communities in which they operate, consistent with safe and sound banking practices. The premise of the CRA is that by accepting support from the United States government in the form of publicly-backed deposit insurance and guaranteed access to funds from the Federal Reserve obligates banks to reinvest in the communities where they have a deposit base. This reinvestment takes the form of making home mortgage loans, small business loans, investing in affordable housing, and other community development investments.

PCRG’s study will now be published in three parts – an overview of that year’s lending and local bank performance, an in-depth look at LMI lending, and an in-depth look at lending to African-American borrowers.

Download part I of the study here.