Letters to the Editor
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Not surprising at all
There is a study (Ayres study) done about how race and gender affect the prices that car salesman quote to customers. In the study male and female, black and white testers who are sent out to car dealerships, and all gave the car salesmen the same set of facts. They were all roughly the same age (late twenties). They all drove the same kind of car into the lot. They all dressed neatly and conservatively. They identified themselves as college-educated professionals (sample job: systems analyst at a bank). And they said they lived in the upper-income Chicago neighborhood of Streeterville.
The results were that on average the white guy is quoted a car at on average $1000 less than the black man, and the women also get worse deals than the white man.
So, if thats how car salesman act when confronted by the same background for people, then why not home loan salesmen? Cars and homes are similar "big ticket" purchases, with a lot of cultural image attached to them. It is absolutely no surprise to me that when confronted with exactly the same set of background information on 2 loan applicants, the men get a better deal than the women (and especially the black women). It goes on all the time. The only reason you don't see it more is that home loans and cars are individual purchases, they aren't the sort of thing sitting on the shelves in walmart. But if walmart was a haggle-based system, you'd better believe that a pack of gum would cost $1 for a white man, and $2 for a black woman.