Mortgage Lending Fell Sharply Last Year

Wall Street Journal (09/12/08) P. A4; Simon, Ruth; McGinty, Tom
Mortgage originations fell 25 percent to 10.4 million home loans in 2007, according to the Federal Reserve. Products with high interest rates--most of which constituted subprime financing--accounted for 18.3 percent of home loans last year, down from 28.7 percent in 2006. Mortgage lending decreased 49 percent among Hispanic borrowers and 35 percent among African-American borrowers between the first six months of 2006 and the second half of 2007, compared with a decline of just 22 percent for white borrowers. In its own, separate analysis of the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act data, The Wall Street Journal reports that lenders cited credit history as the top reason for denying a loan.