Zillow: Mortgage denial rates down for minority applicants

Zillow research released this morning included some good news for minority applicants: Although Hispanic and black homeowners are still lagging behind white and Asian homeowners in the housing recovery, the denial rate for mortgages has decreased nationally.

Here’s how the South Florida market ranked:

• The denial rate for 2014 conventional mortgage applications was 19.5 percent, down 1.7 percent from 21.2 percent in 2013. (This is significantly higher than the national denial rate of 11.2 percent in 2014.)
• Bucking the national trend, for black applicants, the denial rate rose from 29.2 percent in 2013 to 30.3 percent in 2014 — a 1.1-percent increase.
• For white applicants, the denial rate fell from 17.9 percent in 2013 to 15.6 percent in 2014 — a 2.3-percent drop.
• For Hispanic applicants, the denial rate fell from 23.6 percent in 2013 to 21.5 percent in 2014 — a 2.1-percent drop.
• For Asian applicants, the denial rate fell from to 21.9 percent in 2013 to 20.4 percent in 2014 — a 1.5-percent drop.