As reported in The Bellingham Herald, the availability of subprime loans made it easier for poor people to borrow money in recent years, but that borrowing may have hurt more people than it helped, University of British Columbia geographer Elvin Wyly said Friday. Wyly, who spoke at Western Washington University, has researched the geographic concentration of the impact of subprime loans and the upswing in home foreclosures that followed. That research showed the greatest impact tends to be in black and Hispanic neighborhoods and regions. Blacks and Hispanics are almost twice as likely to have higher-interest subprime loans as other groups, he said. Today, Wyly noted, subprime loans are being blamed for billions of dollars in losses to everyone from homeowners to big Wall Street investment firms. Some have estimated that the eventual total lost wealth from the collapse of the subprime mortgage industry could be above $2 trillion.

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