Gender and ethno‐racial disparities in access to mortgage credit

Abstract

There is a long history of gender and ethno‐racial stratification in access to homeownership. Previous research highlights unequal treatment of minorities and women in the mortgage market. However, prior studies focus on single loan applicants when assessing the roles of both gender and race and ethnicity in their analysis. Because of this, it is unclear how mortgage lending disparities differ when considering the intersection of gender and race and ethnicity across single and co‐applicants. This paper draws on annual data from the 2018 and 2019 Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA) to assess gender and ethno‐racial disparities in loan outcomes. I document two diverging trends. On the one hand, single applicant women generally perform similarly or outperform single applicant men in the mortgage market even across ethno‐racial groups. On the other hand, women‐headed co‐applicants are more likely to experience an adverse loan outcome compared to male‐headed co‐applicants. The gender gap is substantially larger for black and Latino co‐applicants than for white co‐applicants. This is particularly true for black women‐ and Latina‐headed co‐applicants when examining mortgage denials. The results for Asian co‐applicants are mixed, as gender disparities differ across mortgage outcomes. Implications for gender and ethno‐racial stratification are discussed.