Study: Housing Hardships Greater for Black, Hispanic Communities

Despite efforts to bring greater equality to the housing market, research conducted by ""Zillow"":http://www.zillow.com/ suggests black and Hispanic homebuyers still face greater difficulties related to homeownership than whites.

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The research study, done in partnership with the ""National Urban League"":http://nul.iamempowered.com/, found blacks and Hispanics are less likely to apply for a mortgage than white homebuyers, accounting for a combined 15.4 percent of mortgage purchase applications in 2012 despite making up 29.4 percent of the U.S. population.

In comparison, whites--who made up 63 percent of the population--filed 64.8 percent of purchase applications that year.

Breaking down the application data, the study found blacks and Hispanics were more likely to apply for a mortgage insured by the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) than a conventional loan, with 57.4 percent of [COLUMN_BREAK]

black applicants and 60.3 percent of Hispanic applicants taking that route; only 30.1 percent of white applicants made the same choice.

Out of those groups that applied for a conventional loan, black applicants were 2.4 times more likely to be denied than white applicants, while Hispanics were 1.98 times more likely to be denied, Zillow reported.

However, the report notes that much of the difference is attributable ""to the different resources and qualifications of minority versus white applicants,"" making it difficult to judge the extent to which discrimination played a part in those denials.

Furthermore, research found that neighborhoods with high black and Hispanic populations have experienced the most overall depreciation since home prices peaked. In neighborhoods with high black populations, prices have fallen 23.3 percent, according to the report, while prices are down 32.6 percent in neighborhoods with high Hispanic populations.

In comparison, predominantly white neighborhoods have seen prices fall 13.4 percent, while largely Asian neighborhoods have experienced depreciation of only 0.6 percent.

To address these findings, Zillow and the National Urban League will host a live-streamed ""town hall meeting"" on January 22, with HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan fielding questions from mortgage applicants. The event, titled ""Building Equality in Housing,"" will be broadcast from Zillow's headquarters in Seattle starting at 1 p.m. Eastern time.