WOMEN'S ACCESS TO MORTGAGE LENDING IN NEW JERSEY

Report to New Jersey Citizen Action

May 12, 1997

HMDA DATA ANALYSIS

Census Tract Application Rates

Table 24 - Analysis by Census Tract for Application Rates

There is a substantial difference between the ratios for the lower income tract on a statewide basis versus the top 50 totals. The disparity may be explained by the lack of available data and the low-application rates in the low-income census tract. (Please see Appendix for full table.) Since there is so little data to compute in this category, the data that is present has an inordinate effect upon the top 50 totals. Perhaps a better way to view the top 50 data would be using a data map. This would allow a visual map of where the lending institutions are located and insight into their local lending patterns.

Figure 17 below gives a visual comparison of the percentage of female applicants versus the percentage of male applicants by census tract. It is clear that as income tract level rises the proportion of male applicants to female applicants rises.

Figure 17 - Application Rates by Census Tract for Statewide Totals

(From APPENDIX I, Table 36)

Figure 18 compares the ratios of female-to-male applicants in order to show the downward trend as income tract level rises. The ratio for low-income tracts is highest at .40 and lowest for high-income tracts at .22.

Figure 18 - Application Ratios by Census Tract for Statewide Totals

(From APPENDIX I, Table 36)

These charts may suggest that lower income females are more likely to be the lead applicant for loans than upper income females. This trend may reflect the tendency for lower income women to be single head-of-household. Since women in the higher income tracts are more likely to be married, they are therefore less likely to be the lead applicant on the home purchase mortgage application.

It should be noted that twenty-one of the lending institutions reported zero applications for women or men in the lower income census tract. Of these, ten reported zero applications for women when there was some activity for men. The effects of this kind of data distribution must be considered when analyzing the numbers.

Census Tract Origination Rates

Table 25 - Analysis by Census Tract for Origination Rates

Figure 19 shows origination percentages by census tract for males and females. The first two columns represent the overall origination rates for all census tracts. Statewide, the difference between female and male origination rates is 2%. The disparities between each income tract ranged between 1% and 5%. The largest disparity lies in the moderate-income census tract.

Figure 19 - Percent of Originations per Applicants by Census Tract by Statewide Totals

(From APPENDIX I, Table 37)

It should be noted that in the lower income census tract, there were twenty-four lending institutions that reported zero transactions for either women or men. Of these, twelve reported some activity (applications or originations) for men, but none for women. Only two reported some activity for women but none for men. In the moderate-income census tract, seven lending institutions reported zero transactions for women or men. This was not the case for middle and upper income tracts. This data deserves further investigation to determine the causes of the discrepancies. (Please see Appendix for full table.)