This article came from Credit Union Times today and I'm sure that the regulators are going to pay attention to the statistics.
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Disparity Between Minority and White Mortgage Denial Rates Growing Again

WASHINGTON —Despite preventative initiatives, a newly published report from the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) shows that many lower income and minority families are still being shut out of the homebuying market because of the persistence of “serious racial and economic disparities.”

The Great Divide: Home Purchase Mortgage Lending Nationally and in 120 Metropolitan Areas”, is based on an analysis of data made available under the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA) of home purchase loans originated in 2003. It also compares this data to that from 2002, five years earlier (1993) and 10 years earlier (1993).

Two of the most significant findings of the study are that the disparity between minority and white denial rates fell from 1993 to 1998, but by 2003 it had returned to 1993 levels; and although minority homebuyers showed a larger percentage increase than whites in the number of conventional loans they received from 1993 to 2003, a significant portion of the increase in loans to minorities was due to higher cost subprime loans.

ACORN is not known for its' subtlety, accuracy or showing all sides to an issue. They have an agenda and do whatever they can to make a point, no matter how statistics are used.

I’m also posting anonymously because I have to deal with them more often than necessary.

CEB - are you a credit union person too? I am also at a CU in Southern CA.