Black and Latino mortgage applicants from New England continued to experience much higher denial rates than whites and Asians in 2013 and 2014, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston’s recent study. The disparity occurred at every income level. Even at the highest income level tracked in the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act data set used for the study ($150,000+), blacks and Latinos, respectively, were almost 2 times and 1.3 times more likely to be denied a loan relative to whites with equivalent earnings.
The study also compared the types of mortgages made by the New England states. About 27 percent of Vermont’s home purchase mortgage originations were through the federal FHA, VA, or Farm Service Agency/Rural Housing Service programs.
