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The New York Times has published an investigative article questioning the potential of age discrimination in mortgage origination.

The article “A Great Credit Score, but She Can’t Get a Mortgage” stated that “many older Americans have a hard time refinancing because of their mortality risks and lower retirement incomes.” The Times cited research by Natee Amornsiripanitch, an economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia, who published a data analysis in Febrauary that determined mortgage application data rejections “rose steadily with age, particularly accelerating for applicants over 70” – and in terms of refinancing applications, it was greater than 19% for those in their sixties and more than 20% for those 70 and older, compared to the 17.5% rejection rate for all age groups.

“What’s more, older applicants paid slightly higher interest rates when they took out either refinances or new purchase mortgages,” the Times’ report added.

Also featured in the report was a 2021 study by the Urban Institute that found “mortgage denial rates of 18.7% for people over 75, 15.4% for those 65 to 74 and 12% for people under 65.”

The article included a case study with a 60-year-old retired lawyer who said she was unable to refinance her three-bedroom ranch house in Sacramento County, California, despite having an 800 credit score. However, the Times article did not identify which lender rejected the lawyer’s application, nor did it include input from any mortgage industry professionals or from the trade organizations representing their industry.