Zillow on race (African-American and Hispanic) and mortgages
African-American and Hispanic borrowers have been largely shut out of the conventional mortgage market, according to a new report from Zillow and the National Urban League. Citing 2012 loan data reported under the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act, along with results from a Zillow poll of 700 mortgage applicants in December, the analysis found that whites accounted for about 69 percent of all conventional mortgage applications. The share of applications filed by blacks was under 3 percent; Hispanics represented only 5 percent.
zillow.com/blog/research/2014/01/15/minority-mortgage-access/
zillow.mediaroom.com/file.php/1759/Executive+Summary_FINAL.pdf
via NY Times
Black and Hispanic borrowers are far more likely to apply for low-down-payment loans insured by the Federal Housing Administration. About 57 percent of black applicants and 60 percent of Hispanic applicants applied for F.H.A. loans, compared with 30 percent of white applicants.
ulia Gordon, the director of housing finance and policy at the Center for American Progress, a liberal research group, has concerns about what she calls "the dual housing market," and says she believes the conventional market ought to be making lower-down-payment loans more widely available. "Like all the other separate-but-equal arrangements," she said, "this is not good for consumers or the market or for taxpayers. We are seeing creditworthy people who should be able to get loans in the conventional market but can't."
zillow.com/blog/2012-03-27/homek-accounts-a-down-payment-on-homeownership-and-retirement/.
Jason R. Gold, a senior fellow at the Progressive Policy Institute, a research group, also proposed the creation of "HomeK" accounts, which would give workers the option of using up to half of their contributions to 401(k) retirement savings for a down payment on their first home.