Minorities more likely to pay high costs for mortgages, study says

The share of higher-cost home-purchase loans for upper-income Boston blacks and Latinos was more than six times greater than that for whites of comparable means, a new report said.

The report, which defined upper income as over $152,000, was issued today by the Massachusetts Community & Banking Council, a group established to encourage investment in low-income and minority neighborhoods and funded by member banks.

"The report is the clearest evidence we have seen so far of targeting by higher cost lenders," Tom Callahan, co-chairman of the council's mortgage lending committee, said in a statement.

The report, which focused on Massachusetts lending activity during 2005, defines a higher-cost loan as one in which the spread between the loan's annual percentage rate and the interest rate on Treasury securities can be three percentage points or more.
(By Chris Reidy, Globe staff)

To read the report, click here.