Reveal, May 3, 2018: Warren Buffett’s mortgage companies set up to cater to white clients
Trident Mortgage Co. helps more families buy homes in Philadelphia and neighboring Camden, New Jersey, than any other company, but it primarily serves one demographic: white people.
That is no coincidence: Trident employs a nearly all-white team of mortgage consultants, and all of Trident’s offices are in white neighborhoods, where it makes the overwhelming majority of its loans to white homebuyers.
It’s a division of Berkshire Hathaway Inc., the giant holding company led by Warren Buffett, which has dramatically expanded its mortgage brokerage portfolio in recent years, reporting nearly 28,000 loans worth $7.3 billion last year.
Buffett has dismissed the report, denying all allegations of discrimination. The terms borrowers would get from Clayton Homes “has nothing to with your religion or color or anything of the sort,” he told CNBC. “There’s a range of rates depending on your creditworthiness.”
