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#1876298 - 12/05/13 04:22 PM Assessment Area
bobo07 Offline
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Joined: Jul 2013
Posts: 11
When determining the assessment area what can be used as cut offs between census tracts?

- we are currently using a major highway and the county border to define the assessment area.
- the highway cuts through some of the census tracts - do we include those tracts or not? is that ok?

thank you

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#1876302 - 12/05/13 04:26 PM Re: Assessment Area bobo07
Kathleen O. Blanchard Offline

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Kathleen O. Blanchard
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Obviously you cannot split tracts so you follow the highway as closely as possible, being careful not to arbitrarily cut off low/mod or minority tracts.

This presumes you have done a good analysis and can defend splitting the county and the highway makes sense as a boundary.
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Kathleen O. Blanchard, CRCM "Kaybee"
HMDA/CRA Training/Consulting/Mapping
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#1876345 - 12/05/13 05:18 PM Re: Assessment Area bobo07
bobo07 Offline
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Posts: 11
what do you define as "good analysis" for splitting the county? what has to be done?

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#1876354 - 12/05/13 05:32 PM Re: Assessment Area bobo07
Kathleen O. Blanchard Offline

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Kathleen O. Blanchard
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Posts: 21,293
You have to be able to defend the AA. Why can't the bank take the entire county (too many square miles?). Why is that highway a good divider? Why can't you cross it? Do you go through the part that is outside of your AA to get to other parts of your AA?
_________________________
Kathleen O. Blanchard, CRCM "Kaybee"
HMDA/CRA Training/Consulting/Mapping
The HMDA Academy
www.kaybeescomplianceinsights.com

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#1876388 - 12/05/13 06:27 PM Re: Assessment Area bobo07
bobo07 Offline
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Joined: Jul 2013
Posts: 11
the area is Kings county in NY - which has 700 census tracts. We dont have a branch there but do have multiple deposit taking ATMs. We are considering reducing the area so that we can argue that we can service the census tracts we chose.

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#1876436 - 12/05/13 07:27 PM Re: Assessment Area bobo07
Kathleen O. Blanchard Offline

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Kathleen O. Blanchard
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 21,293
It is not unusual to take only part of a county for a county as large geographically and population-wise as Kings. Not knowing your bank, Itis hard to comment but reasons for the ATMs could be provided (convenience for customers who live in Brooklyn but primarily bank at branches in Manhattan, for example) could suuport your reasoning as well as staffing issues due to no actual branches in Brooklyn.

Make sure you can support your decisions and reasons.
_________________________
Kathleen O. Blanchard, CRCM "Kaybee"
HMDA/CRA Training/Consulting/Mapping
The HMDA Academy
www.kaybeescomplianceinsights.com

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#1876521 - 12/05/13 09:59 PM Re: Assessment Area bobo07
bobo07 Offline
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Joined: Jul 2013
Posts: 11
thanks!

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