More than 90 percent of [tag]home mortgage[/tag] transactions involved a two-stage process. The first stage, the development of posted prices that are delivered to loan officers and mortgage brokers, is bias-free. The unequal treatment of [tag]minorities[/tag] occurs in stage 2, where posted prices are converted into the final prices paid by borrowers. A sizeable number of loan officers and brokers charge what the market will bear, and minorities end up paying more because they are more vulnerable.

Minorities (and others) can avoid discrimination by selecting distribution channels where pricing discretion is either absent or controllable by the borrower. Pricing discretion is absent in Internet-based lending because loan officers don’t capture the customer and therefore don’t have the clout to dictate their terms of employment. Internet-based lending offers other borrower protections as well. These include more complete information on lender fees and third-party fees, and the ability of shoppers to monitor their price from day to day until they lock it. On my Web site, I list and rank the best of the Internet-based lenders, including two that qualify as Upfront Mortgage Lenders.

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