CLAYTON COUNTY — Mortgage deserts are making it where 49% of people in Clayton County are buying a home without a loan, according to a report from the Consumer Federation of America.

There are just as many people buying with cash as buying with a mortgage, according to officials.

Liz Coyle, executive director of the consumer advocacy nonprofit Georgia Watch, says non-traditional mortgage lenders are buying up homes and getting people stuck in debt.

“The evidence has been clear through many generations that Georgia’s rural residents, especially among Black families, are excluded from the wealth-building advantages that come with homes acquired through mortgages,” said Coyle. “Having the data and analysis to confirm this reality will make a real difference in our ability to pursue policy solutions for the people in our state.”

The report sees small-dollar mortgages and expansion of consumer protection as ways to help people wanting to buy a home.

“Mortgages remain scarce in too many places: a modern-day redlining that has very real consequences for people and communities,” said Sharon Cornelissen, director of housing and author of the report. “From rural Georgia to rural Texas and from Baltimore to Detroit, without mortgages, families cannot become homeowners, cash investors have free reign, and communities struggle to build wealth.”

In doing so, the report found Black residents make up twice the share of the population in rural mortgage deserts compared to other rural areas (15 percent vs. 7 percent), and a larger share in urban mortgage deserts than in other urban communities (21 percent vs. 13 percent). States with the most rural mortgage deserts include Georgia, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Illinois, according to officials.

Meanwhile, Baltimore city and Clayton County in suburban Atlanta are among the nation’s most excluded urban mortgage deserts: half of all homes (49%) are sold without a mortgage.

The report also finds that in some parts of rural Georgia, over 7 in 10 homes are bought without a mortgage, while in some Detroit neighborhoods, mortgages remain an anomaly even as hundreds of homes are bought and sold.