Many Bay Area homebuyers with low and moderate incomes are eligible for thousands of dollars in mortgage help from Wells Fargo, after the bank agreed to set up a $100 million fund to settle claims that it harmed investors by conducting sham interviews with minority job seekers and discriminating against Black and Latino borrowers.
Under a settlement approved by a federal court judge Friday, home purchasers who meet income criteria in Santa Clara, Alameda, Contra Costa, San Mateo and San Francisco counties — and dozens of other areas across the U.S. — are eligible for up to $10,000 in down-payment assistance and up to $5,000 for closing costs if they obtain mortgages through Wells Fargo.
“It’s an important settlement and will have direct, large-scale impacts on a large section of Bay Area residents,” said Mark Molumphy, a lawyer at Burlingame law firm Cotchett, Pitre & McCarthy who represented plaintiffs in the case…