GreenState Credit Union has announced that through the first six months of 2021, GreenState is on track to close over $50 million in home loans to Black and African American members in 2021. Sustaining this growth through the end of the year will represent a 67% increase year-over-year compared to 2020.
The announcement puts GreenState on track to hit its goal, announced earlier this year, to invest $500 million in mortgage lending to help close Iowa’s racial homeownership gap over the next decade. Additional products and services are under development to sustain this progress.
“We are proud to report our initial results are incredibly promising, and we are just getting started,” GreenState president and CEO Jeff Disterhoft said.
“Our board of directors is pleased with this progress, and we will continue to lead by example in addressing our state’s homeownership gap,” said GreenState board chairman Fred Mims.
According to a 2019 report by University of Iowa Professor Colin Gordon, Iowa has the sixth-largest homeownership gap between Black and white homeowners in the United States.
To combat this homeowner gap, GreenState announced in January it would invest $500 million in dedicated mortgage lending over the next decade to help close Iowa’s racial homeownership gap, as a part of a broader “Community Investment Statement” adopted by the board of directors.
