The Subprime Loan Crisis Built On a Foundation of Sexism And Racism

According to a Consumer Federation of America paper at AmericaSaves.org, women and people of color with the same income and credit scores as white men were more likely to receive subprime loans that made it more difficult to build equity and wealth.

Main points

• Women are more likely to receive subprime and high-cost subprime mortgages.


• Women are significantly over-represented in the pool of subprime mortgages.


• Women are more likely to receive subprime mortgages of all types regardless of income, and
  disparity between men and women increases as incomes rise.


• Women of color are the most likely to receive subprime loans and white men are the least likely
  to receive subprime loans at every income level and the gap grows with income.

The study examined 4.4 million mortgage originations throughout the country where borrowers identified their gender.

CFA examined borrower incomes based on the Area Median Income where they lived to analyze comparable borrowers across the country. The CFA analysis found that the subprime disparity between women and men increased for women with higher incomes relative to men with similar earnings. Although women earning below the area median income were 8 percent more likely to receive subprime loans than similarly earning men, women earning more than double the area median income were 50 more likely to receive subprime loans than men with similar earnings.

The Center for Responsible Lending found a similar effect.

When we compare the borrowers with the same risk characteristics, African Americans and Latinos were still more likely to get higher-rate loans.

- Consumer Federation of America | Women More Likely To Receive Subprime Home Loans;
Disparity Highest For Women With Highest Incomes
Women of Color Have Highest Rates of Subprime Mortgage Lending, Disparity with White Men Grows with Income
- JLBReport.com | African American And Hispanic Home Buyers Pay Higher Interest Rates On Mortgages
- Center for Responsible Lending | Search results for African American
Includes Lenders' Explanations for Charging African-Americans and Latinos More Don't Add Up and Race Matters: Payday Lenders Set Up Shop in African-American Neighborhoods, and much more.