According to the 2007 Annual Minority Lending Report, compiled and released by Compliance Technologies and Genworth Financial, mortgage lending to minorities was down 7% in 2006. The only exception was among African Americans, which showed an increase of 0.6% over the prior year.
The report found that the greatest decline in minority home buying was among Asian buyers – down 21%. Hispanic home buying declined 5.2%.
"The momentum we've been seeing in minority home buying unfortunately came to a halt in 2006," says Maurice Jourdain-Earl, managing director of Compliance Technologies. "The level of subprime lending to minorities that the report shows is troubling."
Nearly four out of every 10 mortgages extended to "all minorities" in 2006 were subprime loans – more than double the rate for white borrowers, according to the report (39% compared to 18%).
Among minorities, subprime lending was most prevalent with African-American borrowers (48% of all 2006 loans), followed by 42% of Hispanics and 17% of Asians. By comparison, 18% of white borrowers received subprime loans in 2006.