How do you help low-income communities to buy homes?

“LMI is focused for everyone, but from a diversity perspective, we’re trying to grab that lost middle that still need support because they’re trying to get into a home to grow wealth, and the diversity grant does a good job with that,” Vogt told Mortgage Professional America (MPA).

Vogt is also responsible for the sales team, including overseeing the CRA LO’s reports. Under the Community Reinvestment Act, financial institutions such as First Horizon are encouraged to help meet the credit needs of the communities in which they do business, and that includes LMI neighborhoods.

Talk of LMI borrowers inevitably leads to the wider issue of Black homeownership, as this group in particular has been more severely impacted than most.

Recent data shows that the rate of Black homeownership has contracted severely in the last 50 years (roughly 45% compared to 73.8% among non-Hispanic White households).

Analysis by online real estate platform Zillow also revealed that Black applicants were denied a mortgage at an 84% higher rate than White applicants in 2020. Earlier this year it also came to light that Wells Fargo rejected nearly half of their Black homeowners refinancing applications in 2020.