CHARLOTTE, NC— As with the 2004 and 2005 HMDA data, the Federal Reserve staff analysis of the 2006 HMDA data continues to document a troubling trend of Blacks and Hispanics disproportionately receiving higher-priced loans.  The Federal Reserve staff analysis suggests that there is a statistical relationship between the incidence of higher-priced lending and future loan performance.   

 

Congressman Watt said: “The most recent HMDA data and the Federal Reserve’s analysis of that data are distressingly similar to the data and the analyses we have seen in prior years.  The data continues to show that African Americans and Hispanics are still receiving a disproportionate share of mortgage loans with higher interest rates and disadvantageous terms.   

 

While the Federal Reserve and the other regulators continue to go out of their way to stress that “factors other than race could be responsible for these disparities”, we continue to be alarmed that no other coherent rationale for the disparities has been put forward and that the Federal Reserve has not used authority it already has to require lenders to provide the information that could eliminate questions about why the disparities continue.   Unfortunately, not only the data and the Federal Reserve’s analysis of the data continue to be the same, but the level of indifference of the regulators and lenders to the data seems not to be diminishing.  This is a distressing sign for a country that professes to desire real equality.  If African Americans can’t get equal terms to buy homes, the most important wealth building asset in our country, chances for equality are diminished in virtually every other area of life.”