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De Facto
A verb that refers to a borrower’s failure to repay a loan, which can have various consequences depending on the circumstances. In the case of home mortgages, default can often result in foreclosure. But Rothstein also uses the term metaphorically, to talk about how the government has violated its own “constitutional obligations” to citizens.
Default Quotes in The Color of Law
The The Color of Law quotes below are all either spoken by Default or refer to Default. For each quote, you can also see the other terms and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Chapter 7
Quotes
The consequences of racially targeted subprime lending continue to accumulate. As the housing bubble collapsed, African American homeownership rates fell much more than white rates. Families no longer qualify for conventional mortgages if they previously defaulted when they were unable to make exorbitant loan payments; for these families, the contract buying system of the 1960s is now making its return. Some of the same firms that exploited African Americans in the subprime crisis are now reselling foreclosed properties to low- and moderate-income households at high interest rates, with high down payments, with no equity accumulated until the contract period has ended, and with eviction possible after a single missed payment.
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Default Term Timeline in The Color of Law
The timeline below shows where the term Default appears in The Color of Law. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 4: “Own Your Own Home”
...then built “a half-mile concrete wall” between them and got his loan approved. When homeowners defaulted and the FHA foreclosed on their homes, it ensured that only “real estate brokers who...
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Chapter 6: White Flight
...properties to decline,” and in turn threaten the FHA’s own finances by making white people default on their mortgages. The FHA had no evidence for this—it could only site one anecdotal...
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