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The Urban Institute recently examined data from the Home Mortgage Disclosure act to discover if minority applicants were being denied mortgages at a higher rate than other races. In total, the group found that at least 16 percent of applicants were denied GSE loans, according to data from the HMDA. However, when the Urban Institute compared HMDA data to CoreLogic data, they found denial rates for low credit profile applicants was at least 54 percent for all races.
Regardless of race, weaker credit profile applicants were denied at a significantly higher rate than other applicants. The Urban Institute found that of low credit profile applicants, at least 75 percent of African American applicants were denied GSE loans, 67 percent of Hispanic, 50 percent of white and 55 percent of Asian. Compare to 2001, at least 37 percent of African Americans were denied GSE loans, as were 25 percent of Hispanics, 15 percent of whites and 11 percent of Asians. The group believes the GSEs are underserving applicants with weaker credit profiles
Mortgage credit access opened up slightly in May, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association's Mortgage Credit Availability Index. The MCAI increased 1.14 percent from April to May, reading 115.1 in the latest measure. The index was benchmarked at 100 in March 2012, and would have read roughly 800 if the tracking measure had existed in 2007. May's gains came partially from a slight increase in the availability of jumbo loans and lower credit score requirements on FHA loans.
