Evidence suggests racial prejudice is still stopping many African Americans from getting home mortgages

It is often much harder for African Americans to get a home mortgage compared to other racial groups in the US. But how much of this disparity is down to racial prejudice? In new research, Nolan Kopkin uses local area data on mortgage denials to investigate the role of racial prejudice in preventing African Americans from getting a mortgage. After accounting for other characteristics such as income and employment, he determines that racial prejudice in American counties is having an adverse impact on whether African Americans who live there are able to get a home mortgage.