Women and Subprime Home Loans

Today, I read two articles that were very interesting.  The articles were called In Subprime Fallout, Women Take a Heavy Hit and Women More Likely to Receive Subprime Home Loans; Disparity Highest for Women with Highest Incomes.  I found these articles to be very informative in the areas of predatory lending, subprime loans, and the disproportionate disadvantage of securing prime loans for women.  It was noted that "women are more likely to receive subprime home mortage than men."  The "higher rates of subprime lending make it harder for households headed by women to build wealth through homeownership."  Some of your first questions should be:  Why are women receiving higher rates than men?  What is the current credit score of these women?  What is their previous credit score history?  The Consumer Federation of America states "evidence suggests that women have slightly higher credit scores on average than men."  In that being stated, a higher credit score would suggest that women are paying their bills on time and taking the necessary steps to be financially fit.  I would naturually think that a higher credit score would allow consumers to receive the lower possible rates, which is not the case in the above situations.

African American and Latino women have also seen varing differences in their mortgages rates in comparison to white men. "African American women earning double the area median income were nearly five times more likely to receive subprime home purchase mortgages than white men with similar income and latino women earning twice the area median income where about four times more likely to receive subprime purchase mortgages then white ment with similar earnings."  The article, In Subprime Fallout, also noted "some loans were not technically subprime, but they were still very dangerous."  My immediate question to this noted comment is, what are the other loans that are "dangerous, but not technically subprime?"  It only would be right for me and others to understand the different loans and our rights.

Suggestions:
It is evident that more training needed to be provided to home buyers and mortgage lenders should put something in place where they would have to talk about the different mortgage options to its consumers.  Lenders could also offer mortgage classes once a month, which would require a loan monitor from the city, state, or national level to attend.  This option would give the customer reassurance that the lender was talking about all of their mortgage options.  I suggest that consumers do the background work before purchasining a house, which consists of creating a budget and determining their ability in affording a home.  In purchasing a home, it is not only the consumers responsibility to make sure their needs and finacial state has been reviewed, but also the lenders.  While most of the suggestions were created off of the detailed articles above, this author recognizes that current programming may already be in place.