RACIAL DIVIDE

Survey Finds Mortgage Rates Higher for Colorado Blacks, Hispanics


By Headwaters News, 9-06-05

If you're Hispanic or African-American and living in Colorado, your chances of paying higher-than-average interest on your mortgage is considerably higher than your Anglo neighbors.

The Denver Post reports on a North Carolina's newspaper's survey of 25 mortgage lender that showed nearly 15 percent of all African-Americans paid a high interest rate on their mortgage, as did 12.4 percent of Hispanics, in 2004.

The study found African-Americans in both Colorado and the U.S. received higher-interest-rate mortgages at four times the rate of whites. The ratio for Hispanics in Colorado was 3.4-to-1, while only 2-to-1 nationally.

A similar study conducted by the Denver Post in 2001 reflected nearly the same trends.

While analysts of the latest study said the disparity between Hispanics and blacks and Anglo home buyers could be due in part to minority home buyers not shopping around for the best rate, the Post's 2001 study showed race and ethnicity were given more weight than income.

Specifically, the Post's study found a black family in Denver earning $70,000 was often charged a higher interest rate than a white family in the same area earning $30,000.

Based on the outcome of that study, Fannie Mae and the Responsible Lending Task Force created a $3 million emergency mortgage fund set up to give victims of predatory lending an opportunity refinance their homes and get a lower interest rate. To date, no one has taken advantage of that fund.



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By Morgage rates, 12-26-05
By Gaxevaorierce, 3-03-09

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