Minorities Still Face Home Lending Bias

Mortgage lenders still reject black applicants more than twice as often as whites with similar incomes, though minorities are being helped by low-income homeloan programs, a government report said Tuesday.

A survey by five federal regulatory agencies said that banks, savings institutions and credit unions last year turned down 33.4 percent of mortgage applications received from blacks, 31.6 percent from American Indians, 24.6 percent from Hispanics, 16.4 percent from whites and 12 percent from Asians.

The new figures are about the same as those of 1993.