BY PATRICIA LAMIELL
The Associated Press
NEW YORK - In these days of easy credit, Alice Scott of Houston was told her $20,000 annual earnings as a free-lance hairdresser weren't enough to qualify for a $15,000 mortgage.
Elnora Thompson, of Dorchester, Mass., was turned down for an $80,000 mortgage although her gross salary after more than 20 years in the accounting department at Bell Atlantic Corp. was well over $20,000.
"My credit was good, I had the down payment, I had stock, I had collateral," she said.
Lucio and Peggy Sanchez of Littleton, Colo., were told that because they didn't have credit cards, they couldn't establish that they were a good credit risk, although Sanchez had steady work as a communications worker.
Each of these people wonder whether they were turned down for credit because of their race.
There were extenuating circumstances in all three cases. The Sanchezes had filed for bankruptcy protection in 1994 after both had been laid off. Ms. Thompson and her ex-husband had defaulted on a mortgage. Ms. Scott is self-employed.
But Ms. Scott and Ms. Thompson, who are black, and the Sanchezes, who are Hispanic, believe their applications got special scrutiny because they are members of minority groups.
They are members of Acorn, a national organization of community groups that released a study this week showing minorities were rejected for home mortgages at a much higher rate than white applicants from 1995-97.
Rejection rates for minorities rose even as a strong economy, low interest rates and easy terms allowed many families to buy homes for the first time.
Acorn (the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now) studied data filed with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development by 9,041 lenders in 35 cities.
Acorn's study found nearly 33 percent of applications from blacks were rejected in 1997, up from 25 percent in 1995.
Blacks were 210 percent more likely than whites to be rejected in 1997, up from 207 percent in 1995, the Acorn study found.
The study found minorities received a lower share of conventional mortgages, those without federal government backing, than whites. In 1997, blacks received 5 percent of conventional mortgages, down from 7 percent in 1995. Hispanics received 6 percent, down from 8 percent.
By contrast, minorities received a higher percentage of government-backed mortgages.
