MyBlack^® Wealth

Well-off blacks denied loans more than low-income whites

A Dayton Daily News investigation: In all income levels, blacks are more likely than whites to be rejected for home loans and are more likely to be sold a high-cost, subprime loan.

Source: Dayton Daily News

DAYTON — More than four decades after racial discrimination in home lending was outlawed, lenders in the Dayton area deny a much higher percentage of loans to blacks than whites, even when income levels are comparable. Blacks are also more likely than whites to be sold a high-cost, subprime loan. A Dayton Daily News examination of 2008 Home Mortgage Disclosure Act data found significant racial disparities exist at every income level. For example, upper-income blacks from an eight-county area in 2008 were twice as likely as whites to be denied home purchase or refinancing loans, the newspaper found. More than 46 percent of black applicants who earn at least $71,760 a year had their applications rejected, while 23 percent of white applicants in that income range did. In fact, upper-income blacks in those eight counties were denied loans more often than even low-income whites. Experts say the effective end of credit makes economically distressed neighborhoods more vulnerable to foreclosure, abandonment and blight.

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