HUD: 'Room For Improvement' In Mortgage Process

The Urban Institute conducted the study for HUD, titled All Other Things Being Equal: A Paired Testing Study of Mortgage Lending Institutions based on data collected in tests done in Los Angeles and Chicago in the spring and summer of 2000. The study found that, "In the majority of cases, minorities and whites received equal treatment, or when differences occurred, they were equally likely to favor the minority as the white."However, the Urban Institute researchers also found that "paired testing revealed statistically significant patterns of unequal treatment that systematically favor whites."