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the latest ORIGINATION Or ig i nat ion {21%} s e r v ic i ng Disparity among approval rates for male and female refinance applicants. a na ly t ic s Study finds that although women are making gains in equality on the job, there still isn't parity when applying for a home loan. W omen are less likely to be approved for mortgage loans than their male counterparts, even when loan-to-income ratios are equal, according to a new study from the Woodstock Institute, a Chicago-based nonprofit research and policy organization. The disparity was more pronounced among certain races. Researchers surveyed first-lien, single-family purchase and refinance applications for loans ranging between $20,000 and $800,000 from applicants with incomes ranging from $20,000 to $999,000 for the year 2010. All applications reviewed were for Chicago-area applicants. In all cases, researchers controlled for loan-to-income ratios, but the study did not mention other loan qualifiers. The findings reveal an 8 percent disparity between the likelihood of a woman and man with similar loan-to-income ratios receiving a purchase loan and a 21 percent disparity among approval rates for male and female refinance applicants. The study also found that when men and women file jointly, applications with a male head and female co-applicant are more likely to be approved than those with the reverse. "We would expect to see no significant difference in the origination rates for male-headed joint applications and femaleheaded joint applications, since the backgrounds of both borrowers on joint applications are considered by mortgage lenders," said Spencer Cowan, VP at the Woodstock Institute. Instead, the Institute found female-headed purchase applications were 24 percent less likely to be approved than male-headed applications. Female-headed refinance applications were 39 percent less likely to be approved, according to the Institute. The disparities were greater among African-American applicants but less prevalent among Latino and Asian applicants. For purchase applications, femaleheaded applications for white buyers were 22 percent less likely to be approved than male-headed applications from white borrowers. For African-Americans, this rate jumped to 34 percent. However, for Latino and Asian applicants, the disparities were 19 percent and 12 percent, respectively. In general, female-headed refinance applications fared worse than female-headed purchase applications, but the prevalence of disparity among races followed the same trend, with AfricanAmerican applicants receiving the most discriminating treatment and Asian applicants receiving the most gender-neutral treatment. Female-headed applications from white couples were 37 percent less likely to be approved. Female-headed applications from African-American couples were 44 percent less likely to be approved, and female-headed Latino and Asian applicants were 30 percent and 29 percent less likely to be approved, respectively. The M Report | 41 se c on da r y m a r k e t The More Things Change, the More They Stay the Same