Study: Race disparities in N.Y. mortgages

NEW YORK, Oct. 15 (UPI) -- Black and Hispanic New York home buyers were more likely to get high-interest subprime mortgages than similar-income white buyers, a university analysis found.

Blacks and Hispanics made up the majority of residents in the 10 neighborhoods with the highest rates of mortgages from subprime lenders while non-Hispanic whites made up the majority of the 10 areas with the lowest rates, the New York University analysis said.

In a majority-black neighborhood in New York's Queens borough, for instance, where the median household 2005 income was $45,000, 46 percent of the mortgages were subprime, while subprime loans accounted for 3.6 percent of home loans in a white Brooklyn neighborhood with a median $50,000 income, the analysis said.

Mortgage Bankers Association economist Jay Brinkmann told The New York Times the analysis didn't provide enough information to conclude subprime lenders were discriminating against minority home buyers.

One of the crucial missing pieces is the credit histories of individual borrowers, he said.

A separate analysis by the Times showed that even at higher income levels, black New York borrowers were far more likely than white borrowers with similar incomes and mortgage amounts to receive subprime loans, the newspaper said.

The state Division of Human Rights is investigating whether subprime lenders have been engaging in discriminatory practices by singling out minority communities.