Citation URL: http://www.urban.org/KathrynLSPettit

The Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA) requires most lending institutions to report on home mortgage loan applications, including the application outcome, loan- and applicant-related information, and property location. Annual data collected through HMDA provide a unique set of files with information at the neighborhood level. This guide describes the HMDA original source data and the HMDA indicators available on DataPlace. The guide also illustrates how HMDA indicators can be used to shed light on such issues as neighborhood investment trends, changes in the racial and economic composition of home buyers, disparities in home loan access, and subprime lending.

This study explores the link between community risk factors and childhood obesity using data on child obesity from the 1988-1994 National Health and Examination Survey, the 2002-2004 National Medical Expenditures Survey, and the 2003-2004 National Survey of Children's Health, combined with data on community characteristics from a wide variety of sources. Multivariate models that relate child obesity to the characteristics of the child's community are used to predict the "risk of childhood obesity" for communities in the United States. The report includes maps and community profiles for 50 states and the District of Columbia.

Families in HUD's Moving to Opportunity program had the chance to move to neighborhoods with lower poverty, lower crime rates and, presumably, more opportunities for employment, good schools and better quality of life. Did they benefit from the moves and did they remain there to continue those benefits? This brief identifies patterns of moving for MTO families and the characteristics of the neighborhoods both from and to which they moved.

Coauthor Kathy Pettit discusses the sixth annual "Housing in the Nation’s Capital" report on housing options and services for the elderly, disabled, homeless, and others with special needs. The annual reports, sponsored by the Fannie Mae Foundation, look in-depth at housing trends and policy opportunities in the Washington, D.C., region. Pettit, a research associate in UI's Metropolitan Housing and Communities center, has been working on the series since it began in 2002.

This is the sixth in a series of annual reports about housing in the Washington metropolitan region. It assembles and analyzes the most current data on housing conditions and trends in the District of Columbia and the surrounding suburbs. Last year's report focused on linkages between housing and schools in the District of Columbia and the metropolitan region. This year's report takes a regional perspective, examining how the region addresses housing for special needs populations. More specifically, the report assesses the housing options and services available to the elderly, disabled, and homeless and explores the consequences and opportunities for housing policy across the region.

This brief compares metropolitan census tracts that improved with respect to poverty in the 1990s (poverty rate decreased by 5 percentage points or more) with those that worsened (poverty rate increased by 5 points or more); looking at the racial composition of both types and how the shares in both types varied in different locations within metropolitan areas and in different types of metropolitan areas nationally. It finds that while trends by these measures were considerably more favorable than in the 1980s, the 1990s still saw a mix of improving and worsening neighborhoods almost everywhere, warranting local action to address the challenges that both imply.

This is the fifth in a series of annual reports that analyzes the most current data on housing conditions and trends in the District of Columbia and the surrounding suburbs. This year's report focuses on linkages between housing and schools in the District of Columbia and the metropolitan region. The availability and quality of public schools play a critical role in shaping demand for housing, and, correspondingly, housing market trends shape school enrollment patterns. To explore these issues, this report reviews trends in housing and public school enrollment in the Washington region, with more in-depth coverage of the District's neighborhoods.

Housing in the Nation's Capital 2005 is the fourth in a series of annual reports sponsored by the Fannie Mae Foundation about housing in the Washington region. It assembles and analyzes the most current data on housing conditions and trends in the District of Columbia and the surrounding suburbs. This year's report focuses on Washington, D.C., examining how the region's sustained prosperity is transforming the District's housing market. More specifically, the report assesses how the city's neighborhoods are changing and explores the consequences for housing opportunity and housing policy across the city.

During the 1990s, numerous public policy changes occurred that could have improved the health of mothers and infants in low-income neighborhoods. This paper examines trends in key maternal and child health indicators, using neighborhood level vital statistics and census data. Trends in four key indicators (births to teenagers; late prenatal care; low birthweight; and infant mortality) over the l990s are contrasted between high poverty and other neighborhoods in Cuyahoga County, Ohio; Denver, Colorado; Marion County, Indiana; and Oakland, California. In all four metropolitan areas, trends in high poverty neighborhoods were more favorable than in other neighborhoods. Still, great disparities between high poverty and other neighborhoods remain. Experience from the l990s suggests that a combination of several intensive interventions can be effective at reducing disparities. (Howell, Embry, Pettit, Kathryn and Kingsley, Thomas. July/August 2005. "Trends in Maternal and Infant Health in Poor Urban Neighborhoods: Good News from the 1990s but Challenges Remain." Public Health Reports 120(4):409-417.)

Housing in the Nation's Capital 2004 is the third in a series of annual reports sponsored by the Fannie Mae Foundation about housing in the Washington region. It assembles and analyzes the most current data on housing conditions and trends in the District of Columbia and the surrounding suburbs. This year's report focuses on the challenges posed by the region's remarkable economic prosperity and highlights potential strategies for tackling the challenges this good fortune poses. It is our intention to provoke focused, sustained dialogue among our region's policy-makers, business representatives, community-based organizations, and advocates.

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