A troubling tale of a Black man trying to get his first mortgage

 Over 70% of Black mortgage applicants surveyed believe they have faced “stricter requirements because of their race”

Of the Black applicants rejected, the vast majority cited a high debt-to-income ratio as a factor, along with a low credit score. Black households are more than twice as likely to have student debt with a median $40,000 student debt load. Racism may also play a role.

Mortgage denial rate for Black applicants is 84 percent higher than for white applicants, according to data from Zillow in 2020, the most year the data was available. This is an increase from 2019 when the denial rate was 74 percent higher.

Overall Black ownership is up at 44 percent, but it is still below the peaks it hit in the early 2000s. The highest being 49.7 percent in 2004.

We already know the homeownership gap for Black people was low compared to other demographics in the United States and it will take an extreme amount of work and effort to ensure that there is equity among Black homeowners.

Interestingly, the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey plus an NAR-conducted survey that 8,000 homebuyers took in 2019 and 2020 – shows that 10% of Black mortgage applicants were rejected. That compares to 6% Hispanic applicants, 4 % white and 4% Asian applicants.

Forty-one percent of Black mortgage applicants responded that they believed to have faced “stricter requirements because of their race” compared to 27% of Asian homebuyers surveyed, 19% of Hispanic respondents and 16% of white households.