The New York Times, September 18, 2020, Is an Algorithm Less Racist Than a Loan Officer?
Digital mortgage platforms provide an improvement to the discrimination plaguing the housing sector; however individuals must be vigilant in this process. Fair housing advocates say government regulators and banks in the secondary mortgage market must rethink risk assessment: accept alternative credit scoring models, consider factors like rental history payment and ferret out algorithmic bias.
Getting a mortgage can be a harrowing experience for anyone, but for those who don’t fit the middle-of-last-century stereotype of homeownership — white, married, heterosexual — the stress is amplified by the heightened probability of getting an unfair deal. In 2019, African Americans were denied mortgages at a rate of 16 percent and Hispanics were denied at 11.6 percent, compared with just 7 percent for white Americans, according to data from the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau. An Iowa State University study published the same year found that L.G.B.T.Q. couples were 73 percent more likely to be denied a mortgage than heterosexual couples with comparable financial credentials.
