⛽ Get ready for the gas price surge | Morning Newsletter
And who the mortgage refinancing boom missed
The Morning Newsletter
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It’s a chillier start to a cloudy day that isn’t forecast to get out of the 50s.
The surge in gas prices is throwing many of us for a loop. How high will they go?
Also, Black and lower-income homeowners missed out on the refinancing boom spurred by low interest rates.
— Kerith Gabriel (@sprtswtr, morningnewsletter@inquirer.com)
This arrived in my inbox early yesterday morning from a reader named Bill:
Has anyone contacted you about the obvious price gouging led by Wawa over the weekend? Friday gasoline was 3.95 a gallon at 10 a.m.; by 12:30 p.m. it was 4.19. Then on Sunday, it went from 4.19 at 11:45 in Limerick to 4.45 by 6 p.m. I was in the business for 20 years and while I know crude oil contributes to it, cargo are priced mid-ocean over 5 days.
It pained me to tell him that what he witnessed was just rising gas prices.
So what’s this mean?
Rob Tornoe looks at prices in the region,
And Andrew Maykuth has some answers to help to prepare for the storm.
Sorry, Bill. I know that’s probably not what you wanted to hear. 👎🏾
What you should know today
Ukrainian newborns are making the reality of war all the more vivid for this Penn neonatologist.
A look inside the first day of no masks for students and teachers in New Jersey.
Anthony Paparo, the former Yeadon police chief, says he was fired because he’s white. Now he’s suing members of the borough council.
The Supreme Court declined to hear a bid to reinstate Bill Cosby’s sex assault conviction.
A Republican effort to block Pennsylvania’s new congressional map was also rejected by the court.
It was 40 years ago this week that the Sixers tried to pull NBA legend Wilt Chamberlain out of retirement.
A former Inquirer editor says she’s proud of the newspaper’s diversity efforts.
And allow our photojournalist Tom Gralish to show you a snapshot of Philly yesterday.
Local Coronavirus Numbers: Here’s your daily look at the latest COVID-19 data.
The numbers tell the story, really.
200%: The number of refinanced home loans in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware in 2020 was 200% higher than the average over the previous two years.
50%: The growth rate for refinances for Black and low- and moderate-income homeowners was half to three-quarters the growth rate of borrowers overall.
50% and 80%: Low- and moderate-income households are those making below 50% and below 80% of area median income, respectively. That’s $47,250 or $75,600 for a family of four in the Philadelphia metropolitan area.
☝🏾 The issue at hand: Instead of finding opportunity, according to the latest Philadelphia Fed report, homeowners in these groups who applied for refinancing were denied at higher rates than applicants overall, even though their denial rates declined in 2020.
📖 The findings: Financial institutions were most likely to deny Black applicants because of inadequate or poor credit history. They were most likely to deny low- and moderate-income applicants because they had too much debt compared with their income.
Our reporter Michaelle Bond takes a look at the report and details where opportunities were lost and some reasons why.
What we’re …
👀 Watching: For you true crime fans out there, how about the case of a serial squatter who terrorized a Chestnut Hill woman — and the double murder that ensued — now depicted on Netflix.
🤔 Questioning: Why Donald Trump keeps dragging Bill McSwain into his fight with Bill Barr.
🎧 Listening: To the Good Souls podcast for positive things happening in Philadelphia.
🧩 Unscramble the Anagram 🧩
He wasn’t born in Philly but his accomplishments here make this guy arguably more Philly than most.
LORN LANE SIEV
Think you know? Send your guess our way at morningnewsletter@inquirer.com. We’ll give a shoutout to a reader at random who answers correctly. Today’s shoutout goes to Michele Petralia from Philadelphia, who correctly guessed PENN TREATY PARK as Monday’s answer.
Photo of the day
That’s our Tuesday. Have a great one. 👍🏾