Zillow report: Housing playing field ‘strikingly unequal’

Black and Hispanic mortgage applicants get approved for loans more often in Las Vegas than around the country, but locally, minorities still get rejected more often than whites, a new report shows.

In Southern Nevada, 18.8 percent of black mortgage applicants were denied in 2013, compared to 27.6 percent nationally, and 13.2 percent of Hispanics were rejected, versus 21.9 percent nationwide, according to Zillow.

Meanwhile, 14.9 percent of Asian applicants were denied in 2013, compared to 13.3 percent nationally.

White applicants fared better in Las Vegas but still were denied more often here than across the country.

An estimated 11.2 percent of white mortgage applicants in the Las Vegas area were rejected in 2013, compared to 10.4 percent nationally.

Overall, Las Vegas’ denial rate among all applicants for conventional loans, 12.5 percent, was on par with the country’s, 12.4 percent, Zillow found.

“While many of the disparities between the experiences of white communities and minority communities during the housing boom and bust can be explained by plain differences in finances and geography, it’s clear that the housing playing field remains strikingly unequal in this country,” Zillow chief economist Stan Humphries said in the report.

Nationally, black and Hispanic applicants make roughly $20,000 less per year than white applicants, leading to much higher denial rates, Humphries said.

Home values in minority communities are expected to rise faster in the next year but are clustered in areas “that saw huge run-ups in home values prior to the recession, and even larger drops during the crash,” Humphies said.

Seattle-based Zillow said it produced its findings by examining figures released under the federal Home Mortgage Disclosure Act.

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