Mortgage discrimination prevalent

WASHINGTON, Dec. 10 (UPI) -- A new study indicates black and elderly Americans are more likely to receive higher-cost, subprime mortgages even if they pose a similar credit risk.

The study, by the National Community Reinvestment Coalition, an association of community advocacy groups, found continuing discriminatory patterns in the mortgage-lending arena, the Wall Street Journal reported.

While blacks and the elderly have been found to pay more for mortgages than whites in other studies, the NCRC study was the first to use credit rating data.

"I don't doubt" the findings, said Amy Crews Cutts, deputy chief economist at Freddie Mac, the government-sponsored mortgage company.

Many minority neighborhoods still lack large national prime-market lenders, Cutts said.

The report examined lending patterns in 10 U.S. cities and found borrowers who were refinancing in predominantly black areas and neighborhoods with a large number of residents over the age of 65 were more likely to get subprime loans in all 10 cities except New York.

In Houston, the study found African-Americans were more likely to get subprime loans by a total of 41 percentage points.