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. Orange County, North Carolina - AIFCH - 2007 <br />denial rate. This means that as long as applicants had a chance to get in the door to make an <br />application, they had a excellent chance of being approved. <br />Our concern is that local lenders seem to be less of a "player" in the mortgage market than <br />those from outside the County. Again, of the 934 total applications for conventional home <br />purchase in Orange County, local lenders had just over 31 % of those applications. <br />6.10 Conventional Home Purchase -Race <br />According to a study by the Pew Hispanic Center, Blacks and Hispanics had a respective <br />median net worth in 2002 of $5,998 and $7,932, respectively. This is down from 2000 amounts <br />and shockingly low, particularly when compared to White median net worth of $88,651.18 <br />Home ownership is one of the most reliable and accessible ways for economically disadvantage <br />people to close the wealth gap and obtain a secure position in the middle class. However, <br />despite the reduction in interest rates to record lows, and numerous mortgage products <br />designed for low-to-moderate income households, less than 50% of Black and Hispanic families <br />have achieved home ownership, compared with 75% of White families.ls <br />Local lenders had very few applications for conventional home purchase loans. Bank of America <br />had the largest number of applications from the MSA with 128. Commercial Banking Company <br />followed with 92 applications. Such small numbers in a total market of over 2,100 applications <br />makes it even more of a concern that Blacks seem to be anon-entity in the mortgage market. <br />All lenders showed that they originated over 52% of the Black applications they received. Local <br />lenders originated at lest 53% of Black applications. By contrast, White applicants had <br />origination's rates in the high eighties and nineties. All lenders originated more than 78% of <br />White applications. Five of the nine local lenders originated over 90% of their White applications <br />and three of the nine originated more than 80%. <br />The high percentages of "race not available" applications and minority applications withdrawn <br />raises a concern regarding the equitable treatment of minority applicants. <br />In defense of the local lenders, if they have mortgage subsidiaries they may be doing more than <br />is readily apparent. It could be assumed that Bank of America would have mortgage partners, <br />since-they were, at one time, the parent organization of more mortgage companies than any <br />other lender in the United States. If any of the local lenders is a partner with a mortgage <br />company, the majority of its mortgage lending activity could be through that company, and thus <br />not reflected in this data. <br />6.11 Conventional Home Purchase -Applicant Income <br />This section analyzes lender performance on another important community reinvestment goal: <br />making mortgage credit available to persons of low-to-moderate <br />19 <br />