Mortgage Lending During the Great Recession: HMDA 2009 2

Home Purchase 

Lending Falls Again in 

U.S. and New York City

As Table 1 shows, mortgage lenders issued 

about 24,500 home purchase loans

1

 in 2009 

to buyers of one-to-four-family homes, con-

dominiums, and cooperative apartments 

in New York City. This number was down 

about 26 percent from 2008 and, after 

five consecutive year-to-year declines, was 

down almost 60 percent from its 2004 peak. 

Each borough also experienced a decline 

from 2008 to 2009. Manhattan, which had 

seen an increase in home purchase lending 

as recently as 2007, saw the biggest drop in 

2009 (42%), while Staten Island declined 

just six percent. The cumulative decline 

in home purchase lending since the City’s 

2004 peak, however, has been similar for 

each of the boroughs. 

Nationwide, lenders originated about 2.4 

million home purchase loans in 2009. This 

number was down only about five percent 1

 Unless otherwise stated, we use “home purchase loans” 

in this Data Brief to refer only to first-lien, home purchase 

loans issued to owner-occupants of one to four-family homes, 

condominiums and cooperative apartments. 

from 2008, but was almost 50 percent lower 

than its 2005 peak. These local and national 

declines in home purchase loan origina-

tions likely reflect the declining availability 

of mortgage financing during the financial 

crisis and its aftermath, as well as the over-

all slowdown in home purchasing activity in 

response to uncertainty about home prices 

and the onset of the recession.

A Growing Reliance on 

the Federal Housing 

Administration (“FHA”)

Table 1 also shows the growing importance 

that loans backed by the Federal Housing 

Administration (FHA), Veteran’s Admin-

istration (VA), Farm Service Agency (FSA), 

and Rural Housing Service (RHS)

2

 have 

assumed in the U.S. and New York City. 

These federal agencies insure or guarantee 

the types of mortgage loans typically issued 

to homebuyers who lack the resources for a 2

 HMDA groups farm loans issued or guaranteed by the Farm 

Service Administration (FSA) with the residential loans guar-

anteed or issued by the Rural Housing Service (RHS). In 2009, 

there were no FSA/RHS loans originated in New York City 

and nationally they made up less than 5 percent of all home 

purchase loans originated.

Table 1: Number of Home Purchase Loan Originations* 

Change, 

2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2008-09

Bronx 5,311 5,623 5,480 4,146 2,685 1,933 -28.0%

% FHA, VA or FSA/RHS 4.7% 1.5% 0.9% 1.6% 12.3% 31.8%

Brooklyn 14,527 15,061 13,990 11,448 8,331 6,204 -25.5%

% FHA, VA or FSA/RHS 3.4% 0.8% 0.6% 0.7% 5.4% 14.8%

Manhattan 12,450 10,612 10,398 11,601 8,344 4,810 -42.4%

% FHA, VA or FSA/RHS 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.1% 0.5%

Queens 20,746 21,616 20,043 15,761 10,884 8,965 -17.6%

% FHA, VA or FSA/RHS 2.1% 0.5% 0.4% 0.6% 6.3% 18.2%

Staten Island 6,625 6,257 4,940 4,187 2,701 2,549 -5.6%

% FHA, VA or FSA/RHS 2.0% 0.9% 1.1% 2.4% 12.1% 29.0%

New York City 59,659 59,169 54,851 47,143 32,945 24,461 -25.8%

% FHA, VA or FSA/RHS 2.2% 0.6% 0.5% 0.7% 5.5% 16.1%

U.S. 4,652,002 4,828,715 4,288,894 3,324,044 2,510,669 2,383,754 -5.1%

% FHA, VA or FSA/RHS 11.8% 8.5% 8.9% 11.8% 37.6% 54.5%

*First-lien home purchase loans issued to owner-occupants of 1-4 family homes, condominiums and cooperative apartments.
Mortgage Lending During the Great Recession: HMDA 2009

3

down payment or credit ratings required to 

obtain conventional prime mortgages. As 

recently as 2007, when subprime loans were 

still widely available, there were only about 

300 FHA/VA-backed home purchase loans 

issued in all of New York City, less than one 

percent of the market.3 In 2009, this number jumped to almost 4,000, or 16 percent 

of all home purchase mortgage originations 

in the city, and about 32 percent and 29 percent of originations in the Bronx and Staten 

Island, respectively. In Manhattan, however, 

which has extremely high housing prices 

and relatively high-income homebuyers, 

FHA/VA-backed mortgages continued to 

make up only a negligible share of the overall market in 2009.

In the U.S. as a whole, FHA/VA-backed home 

purchase mortgage lending has assumed 

3

 For convenience, we refer to all loans backed by the FHA, VA, 

and FSA/RHS as “FHA/VA” or “FHA/VA-backed”.

an even more prominent role. The number 

of FHA/VA-backed home purchase loans 

issued in the U.S. more than tripled in a 

three year period, from fewer than 400,000 

loans in 2006 to almost 1.3 million in 2009. 

Over this period, as the number of conventional loans dropped, FHA/VA-backed loans 

jumped from less than nine percent of the 

national market to almost 55 percent. 

Two national policy changes in 2008 helped 

drive this recent increase in FHA/VA-backed 

home purchase lending. First, in an attempt 

to limit the growing financial crisis, Congress increased the maximum size of loans 

the FHA and VA could insure or guarantee. 

This allowed more home purchases to qualify 

for these types of loans.4 Second, Congress 

4

 The maximum FHA-insured loan amount varies by housing 

type and geography. In New York City, which is designated a 

“high cost area,” the maximum loan amount for single family 

homes increased in March, 2008 from $362,790 to $729,750.

As Table 1 shows, about 55 percent of all home 

purchase loans issued in the country in 2009 

were backed by the FHA, VA, FSA or RHS, an 

extraordinarily high percentage by recent historical standards. We refer to the other 45 percent of home purchase mortgages, which are 

issued without the involvement of these federal 

agencies, as “conventional” loans. The federal 

government still plays a key role in most conventional mortgages, however, through Fannie 

Mae and Freddie Mac. These two large mortgage finance companies, known as Government 

Sponsored Enterprises (“GSEs”), buy mortgages 

from the original lenders, then retain the loans 

in their portfolios or bundle them with other 

loans to back securities that the GSEs issue and 

insure. The GSEs operated as private businesses 

with limited federal oversight for most of the 

past few decades, but in 2008 they formally 

entered federal conservatorship as their financial condition deteriorated. 

Other conventional loans are either retained 

by private lenders in their own portfolios or are 

bundled together and securitized without any 

direct governmental or GSE participation. This 

“non-agency” securitization was particularly 

common for the millions of subprime loans 

that were issued in the years leading up to the 

financial crisis. In the wake of the financial crisis, however, private portfolio lending and nonagency securitization have largely stopped. As a 

result, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of 

San Francisco, by the fall of 2009, almost 95 percent of the mortgage loans being issued were 

either backed by the FHA or VA or purchased 

by the (now government-controlled) GSEs.* The 

future of the GSEs and, accordingly, of the federal role in conventional mortgage lending, is 

a contentious national policy issue currently 

under debate.

* Krainer, John (2009). Recent Developments in Mortgage 

Finance. Retrieved from: http://www.frbsf.org/publications/economics/letter/2009/el2009-33.html 

For more information, see: Ellen, I.G.; Tye, J.N. and Willis, M.A. 

(2010). Improving U.S. Housing Finance through Reform of 

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac: Assessing the Options. Available at: http://furmancenter.org/files/publications

“Conventional” Mortgages and the Growing Role of the 

Federal Government
Mortgage Lending During the Great Recession: HMDA 2009

4

enacted a first-time homebuyer tax credit, 

which was subsequently increased for home 

purchases completed in 2009 (and in the 

first half of 2010). First-time homebuyers 

are less likely than existing homeowners to 

have significant savings and, as a result, are 

particularly likely to use loan products that 

permit low down-payments, such as those 

backed by the FHA and VA. 

It is not immediately clear why the FHA/VA 

share of lending in New York City continued to be so much lower than in the country as a whole. Approximately 80 percent of 

homes sold in New York City in 2009 were 

for amounts lower than the maximum loan 

size eligible for FHA insurance, so the intersection of high home prices and eligibility 

rules alone is unlikely to account for the difference. Perhaps FHA/VA lending in New 

York City lags because the high home prices 

attract a higher percentage of buyers with 

the savings and credit histories to qualify 

for generally lower priced conventional 

mortgages than in the country as a whole. 

It might also be that local lenders and mortgage brokers continued to lack the expertise or administrative capacity to market 

or originate FHA/VA-backed loans in 2009 

after an extended period of extremely low 

demand from 2005 to 2007.

In previous analyses of HMDA data, the Furman 

Center has focused on the share of the mortgage market made up of “higher-cost” loans 

and junior-lien home purchase loans (known 

as “piggyback” mortgages). Higher-cost loans 

are those with an annual percentage rate that 

exceeds by a certain threshold a comparison 

rate (which until late 2009, was the rate offered 

by federal treasury securities with the same 

maturity). Although it is not an ideal measure, 

many researchers have used this higher-cost 

designation, which is included in the HMDA 

data, to proxy for subprime lending. “Subprime” 

does not itself have a specific definition and is 

otherwise unidentifiable in HMDA data. 

The HMDA data show that in 2009, lenders 

originated very few higher-cost loans, continuing a sharp decline since the height of the real 

estate boom in 2004-2006. In New York City, 

only about three percent of home purchase 

loans issued in 2009 were identified by HMDA 

as higher-cost,* down from 23 percent in 2006. 

In the country as a whole, only about five percent of all home purchase mortgages were 

identified by HMDA as higher-cost in 2009,* 

also down from a 23 percent peak in 2006.

Similarly, piggyback lending has almost vanished from New York and the U.S. During the 

real estate boom, piggyback loans were often 

issued to homebuyers to cover the difference 

between the total sale price of a home and the 

amount of a first mortgage. As a result, many 

homebuyers who used piggyback loans had 

little equity in their homes, leaving them particularly vulnerable in the recession. From 2006 

to 2009, the share of New York City borrowers 

obtaining piggyback loans fell from roughly 

28 percent to less than one percent. Nationally, 

this share dropped from about 30 percent in 

2006 to less than two percent in 2009.

Because of changes to the regulatory framework as a result of the Dodd-Frank financial 

reform bill, as well as changes in the market, it 

is unclear in what form, if at all, the subprime 

and piggyback lending markets will return 

when the housing market recovers.

*This percentage covers loans originated January-September, 2009. As of October 1, HMDA required mortgage originators to use a new standard for determining higher-cost 

status, which also revealed very low levels of higher-cost 

lending.

The Disappearance of Subprime and Piggyback Lending
Mortgage Lending During the Great Recession: HMDA 2009 5

Figure A: Median Reported Income of Home Purchase Loan Borrowers* (2009 dollars) NYC U.S.

*Borrowers of first-lien home purchase loans issued to owner-occupants of 1-4 family homes, condominiums and cooperative apartments.

$0

$30,000

$60,000

$90,000

$120,000

2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009

$150,000

Home Purchase 

Lending to Low and 

Moderate Income 

Homebuyers on 

the Rise

Despite the overall decline in home pur-

chase lending, the number of home purchase 

loans issued to low and moderate income 

homebuyers (those earning less than 80% 

of their metropolitan area’s median income) 

increased slightly from 2008 to 2009. In New 

York, the increase was about six percent, and 

such borrowers accounted for only about one 

in ten new home purchase loans. Nationally, 

however, the number of home purchase 

loans issued to low and moderate income 

homebuyers jumped by 24 percent and such 

borrowers accounted for about 37 percent of 

all home purchase loans originated in 2009. 

This increase in loan originations to low and 

moderate income homebuyers helped drive 

a continued downward shift in the median 

income of all home purchase borrowers. As 

Figure A shows, the median income of New 

York City borrowers in 2009 was $92,000, 

down for a third consecutive year from its 

peak of about $127,000 in 2006.

5

 Similarly, 

the median income of home purchase bor-

rowers nationally dropped from $89,000 in 

2006 to $63,000 in 2009. The decline in the 

median homebuyer income is much steeper 5

 All income figures have been adjusted for inflation to 

2009 dollars.

than the overall U.S. decline in median 

income from 2008 to 2009 of 2.6 percent; 

in New York City overall, median income 

increased marginally (1.2%) in the same 

time period. 

Some of this shift might be the result of 

improved income verification policies put 

into place by lenders at the onset of the fore-

closure crisis. However, the continuation of 

the trend from 2008 to 2009 in both New 

York and the U.S. as a whole, after subprime 

lending practices had largely ended, indi-

cates that the shift also reflects real changes 

in the homebuying population. The shift is 

not solely the result of increased reliance on 

FHA/VA-backed loans either, as the median 

income of homebuyers using conventional 

loans in New York and the U.S. also fell sub-

stantially from its 2006 peak through 2009.

Historical Racial 

Disparities in Lending 

Continued

The share of all New York City home pur-

chase loans issues to white homebuyers 

changed little from 2004 to 2009, while 

lending patterns to other racial and ethnic 

groups varied from year to year. As Table 

2 shows, from 2008 to 2009, the number 

of home purchase loans issued to Hispanic 

New Yorkers declined by 32 percent, the 

largest drop of any group. In contrast, the 

decline in home purchase loans issued to 
Mortgage Lending During the Great Recession: HMDA 2009

6

black homebuyers (22%) was lower than the 

decline in home purchase loans issued to 

white homebuyers (27%).

Nationally, the changes in home purchase 

loan origination by race and ethnicity were 

somewhat different than in New York City. 

As Table 2 shows, the number of home 

purchase loans issued to black borrowers 

nationally declined by 14 percent from 2008 

to 2009. The number of home purchase 

loans issued to whites and Hispanics, in contrast, each dropped by only about five percent. The number of home purchase loans 

issued to Asian borrowers nationally actually 

increased modestly. 

More striking than the changes in total loan 

volume issued to borrowers of different races 

or ethnicities is the widening disparities 

in reliance on FHA/VA-backed mortgages, 

both in New York City and the country as a 

whole. As Table 2 shows, fewer than 10 percent of the home purchase loans issued to 

white and Asian New Yorkers in 2009 were 

FHA/VA-backed. In contrast, about 37 percent of home purchase loans issued to Hispanic homebuyers and 55 percent of those 

issued to black homebuyers in New York 

City were FHA/VA-backed. These data suggest that FHA/VA-backed loans have been 

particularly crucial for maintaining even the 

currently depressed levels of home buying 

by black and Hispanic New Yorkers. In fact, 

the number of conventional home purchase 

loans (those without FHA or VA backing) 

issued to New York’s black and Hispanic 

homebuyers dropped more than 80 percent 

from 2006 to 2009, a far bigger drop than 

for white and Asian borrowers. 

Table 2: Number of Home Purchase Loan Originations,* by Borrower’s Race or Ethnicity 

Change, 

2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2008-09

New York

White 26,105 24,262 20,848 20,276 14,447 10,593 -26.7%

% FHA, VA or FSA/RHS 0.5% 0.2% 0.1% 0.2% 2.8% 9.8%

Black 8,801 9,055 9,486 5,420 3,120 2,436 -21.9%

% FHA, VA or FSA/RHS 7.5% 2.0% 1.6% 3.2% 23.3% 55.5%

Hispanic 6,886 7,839 7,804 5,172 2,800 1,919 -31.5%

% FHA, VA or FSA/RHS 4.4% 1.3% 0.7% 1.8% 13.0% 37.3%

Asian 9,862 10,429 9,268 9,836 7,562 6,179 -18.3%

% FHA, VA or FSA/RHS 0.7% 0.2% 0.1% 0.1% 1.5% 6.8%

Other 290 261 198 158 79 85 7.6%

% FHA, VA or FSA/RHS 0.7% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 13.9% 43.5%

Race not Reported 7,715 7,323 7,247 6,281 4,937 3,249 -34.2%

% FHA, VA or FSA/RHS 1.8% 0.2% 0.2% 0.3% 3.8% 11.4%

U.S.

White 3,104,979 3,124,559 2,712,460 2,242,168 1,755,287 1,675,275 -4.6%

% FHA, VA or FSA/RHS 11.4% 8.9% 9.5% 11.5% 35.5% 52.1%

Black 330,495 370,226 372,936 255,253 161,059 138,130 -14.2%

% FHA, VA or FSA/RHS 22.1% 14.5% 13.7% 21.9% 64.4% 81.9%

Hispanic 535,550 624,681 592,312 354,944 238,070 226,538 -4.8%

% FHA, VA or FSA/RHS 14.2% 7.8% 7.3% 12.8% 51.4% 74.4%

Asian 254,334 273,570 217,685 169,820 136,742 141,075 3.2%

% FHA, VA or FSA/RHS 3.7% 2.3% 2.7% 3.4% 16.2% 28.9%

Other 19,142 17,214 15,109 12,517 9,671 10,085 4.3%

% FHA, VA or FSA/RHS 16.1% 13.7% 16.2% 21.7% 49.5% 63.4%

Race not Reported 407,502 418,465 378,392 289,342 209,840 192,651 -8.2%

% FHA, VA or FSA/RHS 8.7% 4.7% 5.7% 8.7% 32.2% 50.1%

*First-lien home purchase loans issued to owner-occupants of 1-4 family homes, condominiums and cooperative apartments.
7

Table 3: Number of Mortgage Refinance Loan Originations* 

Change, 

2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2008-09

Brooklyn 18,014 17,393 16,090 10,852 5,102 7,876 54.4%

Manhattan 6,930 5,384 3,672 3,546 3,859 11,237 191.2%

Queens 23,852 22,595 20,744 14,125 6,316 8,619 36.5%

Staten Island 8,411 7,717 7,282 5,089 2,387 3,732 56.3%

New York City 63,810 59,603 54,151 37,926 19,510 33,523 71.8%

% FHA, VA or FSA/RHS 1.7% 0.8% 1.2% 2.1% 10.7% 10.2%

U.S. 6,862,781 6,409,836 5,399,660 4,213,827 3,045,303 5,340,035 75.4%

% FHA, VA or FSA/RHS 4.3% 2.3% 2.0% 4.3% 16.4% 18.2%

Table 2 also shows that reliance on FHA/VAbacked loans is higher at the national level 

than in New York City for borrowers of each 

racial and ethnic group. But while slightly 

more than half of all home purchase mortgages issued to white homebuyers in 2009 

were FHA/VA-backed, almost three quarters 

of all home purchase loans issued to Hispanic 

homebuyers and more than 80 percent of 

those issued to black borrowers in 2009 were 

FHA/VA-backed.

Refinancing Boom 

for White and Asian 

New Yorkers

In sharp contrast to the continued decline in 

home purchase lending in 2009, there was 

a large increase in the number of mortgage 

refinancings from 2008 to 2009. As Table 3 

shows, in both the country as a whole and 

New York City, the number of mortgage refinance loans6

 issued to homeowners jumped 

by more than 70 percent from 2008 to 2009. 

In Manhattan, the increase in refinance 

loans was particularly steep, nearly tripling, 

from fewer than 4,000 in 2008 to more than 

11,000 in 2009. These increases in mortgage 

refinancings coincided with sinking interest 

rates that allowed many homeowners with 

adequate equity, income and credit histories 

to refinance into lower monthly payments.7

The overall change in refinance loan originations, however, obscures racial and ethnic 

disparities at both the local and national 

level. Figure B indexes the year-to-year 

change in the number of refinance loan originations to homeowners of each race or ethnicity in New York City, with 2004 set at 100. 

6

 Unless otherwise stated, we use “refinance loans” in this Data 

Brief to refer to only those refinance loans issued to owneroccupants of one to four-family homes, condominiums, and 

cooperative apartments (of any lien position).

7

 As measured by the Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market 

Survey, the annual average rate offered for a 30-year fixed rate 

mortgage in 2009 was almost a full percentage point lower 

than in 2008.

Figure B: Index of Refinance Loan Orginations* in New York City by Borrower Race or Ethnicity 

White Black Hispanic Asian NYC 

20

40

60

80

100

120

2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009

2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009

20

40

60

80

100

120

*Refinance loans (of any lien-priority) issued to owner-occupants of 1-4 family homes, condominiums and cooperative apartments.

Mortgage Lending During the Great Recession: HMDA 2009
Mortgage Lending During the Great Recession: HMDA 2009

8

Figure C: Index of Refinance Loan Orginations* in the U.S. by Borrower Race or Ethnicity 

White Black Hispanic Asian U.S. 

20

40

60

80

100

120

2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009

2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009

20

40

60

80

100

120

Figure D: Percentage of Originated Refinance Loans* that were FHA, VA, or FSA/RHS, 

by Borrower Race or Ethnicity NYC U.S. 

*Refinance loans (of any lien-priority) issued to owner-occupants of 1-4 family homes, condominiums and cooperative apartments.

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

White Black Hispanic Asian Total

As the index shows, the overall increase in 

refinance loan originations in New York City 

in 2009 was the result of particularly large 

increases by white and Asian homeowners. 

Despite falling interest rates, the number of 

refinance loans issued to Hispanic and black 

homeowners stayed roughly constant. 

Nationally, as the index in Figure C shows, 

the pattern was similar, with large increases 

in refinancing activity by white and Asian 

homeowners in 2009 and only modest 

upticks in refinancings by Hispanic and 

black homeowners. As a result of these 

uneven increases in refinancing activity, 

while approximately 19 percent of all New 

York homeowners are black,8 these homeowners obtained only about 13 percent 

of the mortgage refinancings originated 

in 2009. Nationally, about eight percent of 

all homeowners are black,9 but black homeowners obtained only about four percent of 

all refinancing loans.

8

 2008 Housing and Vacancy Survey.

9

 2009 American Housing Survey.

The disparities in refinancing trends in 2009 

would likely have been even greater without 

the availability of FHA/VA-backed refinancing loans. As Figure D shows, 39 percent of 

all refinancing loans issued to black homeowners in New York City in 2009 were FHA/

VA-backed, compared to only five percent 

for white homeowners and three percent 

for Asian homeowners. Nationally, 53 percent of all refinancing loans issued to black 

homeowners were FHA/VA-backed in 2009, 

compared to 16 percent of those issued to 

white homeowners and seven percent to 

Asian homeowners.

These disparities raise troubling questions 

about how black and Hispanic homeowners 

are faring in the economic crisis compared 

to white and Asian homeowners. There 

are many possible explanations for the 

vastly different rates of refinancing activity, including disparate unemployment patterns, higher rates of leverage among black 

and Hispanic borrowers, and uneven rates 

of housing value depreciation, but untan-
Mortgage Lending During the Great Recession: HMDA 2009 9

gling their roles is outside the scope of this 

Data Brief. Because refinancing can help 

homeowners get out of unaffordable mort-

gage or add to households’ ability to accrue 

equity by reducing mortgage payments, 

racial disparities in refinancing rates merit 

additional study. 

Future Analsysis of 

HMDA Data

The Furman Center will continue to ana-

lyze HMDA data to better understand how 

mortgage lending has changed in the neigh-

borhoods hit hardest by the foreclosure 

crisis. Many of these neighborhoods are 

the target of local investments funded by 

the $7 billion federal Neighborhood Stabi-

lization Program (NSP). These local invest-

ments include both the purchase and rehab 

of vacant homes for resale and assistance 

to purchasers of foreclosed homes, so the 

availability of mortgage credit will be crucial 

to their success. We will also further analyze 

mortgage lending trends for borrowers with 

different income levels, to see how changes 

in the mortgage market have affected the 

accessibility of NSP neighborhoods to lower 

and moderate income homebuyers.

Methodological Notes

All figures in our analysis are based on 

owner-occupied, one-to-four-family, non 

business-related loans. We excluded from 

our analysis any loans for properties that 

the loan applicant did not report as his or 

her principle dwelling (or intended princi-

ple dwelling), any loans for manufactured or 

multifamily housing (5 or more units), and 

any loans deemed to be business-related 

(classified as those loans for which a lender 

reports an applicant’s ethnicity, race and 

sex all as “not applicable”). Our analysis of 

home purchase loans excludes piggyback 

loans, but our analysis of refinance mort-

gages includes junior-lien loans.

We assigned borrowers to a racial or ethnic 

group for purposes of our research based on 

the first reported race of the primary appli-

cant. However, if the applicant reported his 

or her ethnicity as “Hispanic” we classified 

the applicant as Hispanic, regardless of the 

applicant’s reported race. For approximately 

13 percent of all 2009 New York City home 

purchase loans we analyzed and eight per-

cent in the U.S. as a whole, HMDA reported 

no race or ethnicity information. This occurs 

when a mortgage applicant provides infor-

mation to the lender via mail, internet or 

telephone and does not provide information 

about his or her race. Similarly, 19 percent 

of all refinance loans originated in New York 

City in 2009 and 10 percent in the U.S. as a 

whole included no race or ethnicity informa-

tion. These percentages are roughly constant 

for each year of our analysis. Loan origina-

tions with no race or ethnicity information 

were included in our national, city and bor-

ough level analyses, but were not included in 

our calculations regarding racial disparities.

TH E FU RM AN CENTER FOR REAL ESTATE AN D U RBAN POLICY

is a joint research center of the New York University School of Law and the Robert F. Wagner 

Graduate School of Public Service. Since its founding in 1995, the Furman Center has become 

a leading academic research center dedicated to providing objective academic and empirical 

research on the legal and public policy issues involving land use, real estate, housing and urban 

affairs in the United States, with a particular focus on New York City. More information about 

the Furman Center can be found at www.furmancenter.org.