The secret bias hidden in mortgage-approval algorithms

By EMMANUEL MARTINEZ and LAUREN KIRCHNER/The Markup
The Markup

An investigation by The Markup has found that lenders in 2019 were more likely to deny home loans to people of color than to white people with similar financial characteristics. Holding 17 different factors steady in a complex statistical analysis of more than 2 million conventional mortgage applications for home purchases, The Markup found lenders were 40% more likely to turn down Latino applicants for loans, 50% more likely to deny Asian/Pacific Islander applicants, and 70% more likely to deny Native American applicants than similar white applicants. Lenders were 80% more likely to reject Black applicants than similar white applicants.