News — Housing

We’re all being inundated by disturbing news about the coronavirus. But tucked in between the heart-wrenching stories of families dealing with loss and separation and medical workers lacking critical supplies, you may have heard more than a few commercials for home mortgages. Mortgage lenders and mortgage marketplace services are all but giddy touting the historically low mortgage rates we’re seeing in recent weeks. And while there have been a few hiccups—for example, lenders temporarily suspending acceptance of new applications, simply because they were overwhelmed by sudden rush—the opportunity to save money on a mortgage is still within reach. If you...

Is It Making Neighborhoods Safer—or Whiter? The catalyst for Faribault, Minnesota’s crime-free housing law came one night in October 2013, when more than a dozen residents gathered at a city council meeting to air concerns about the state of their historic downtown. They were worried, as a local reporter recounted, about public safety and building codes. But not far from the surface, the complaints centered on the growing community of Somali immigrants, many of whom lived around the central business district of this city of 23,000 people, about an hour south of Minneapolis. Not far from the surface, the complaints...