Nationwide, 1 in 6 Black mortgage applicants is turned away when applying for a mortgage, compared with 1 in 14 white applicants. The gap is even wider in the most segregated parts of the country. Banks most frequently cite debt and credit history when denying Black applicants, but bias in lending also plays a role.
Nationwide, 15.9% of Black Americans who apply for mortgages are rejected, compared with just 7% of white Americans. The gap is widest in Milwaukee, San Francisco, Detroit, Chicago and St. Louis, where denial rates for Black homebuyers are more than 10