LatinoProsperity on Wednesday released “Mapping Access and Exclusion: Latino Home Purchase Lending Across California’s Major Metropolitan Markets, 2018–2024,” an analysis of Home Mortgage Disclosure Act data that reveals a gap between traditional banks and nonbank lenders in serving Latino homebuyers across California’s major metropolitan markets.
The report finds that while Latinos represent 37.7% of California’s adult population, they received only 31% of home purchase loans in 2024, a gap that has narrowed but remains. Among California’s top 25 lenders, the six major banks directed just 11.4% of their loans to Latino borrowers, compared to 30.5% among nonbank lenders.
Orson Aguilar, president and CEO of LatinoProsperity, said, “Latino families are driving homeownership demand across California, yet the data make clear that major banks have largely turned their backs on this community. This is not just a lending imbalance. It is a structural threat to Latino wealth building and intergenerational mobility.”
Citibank posted the lowest Latino lending rate among major banks at just 5.3%, with Wells Fargo at 6.8%—less than one-quarter of the nonbank average. JP Morgan Chase led the banks with a 21% lending rate to Latino homebuyers.
In the San Francisco Bay Area, the most exclusionary market analyzed, Latino borrowers received just 8.6% of loans. Traditional banks there served Latino borrowers at a 4.7% rate, less than one-third the nonbank rate of 13.7%.
The Inland Empire and Fresno showed the strongest Latino lending rates (38.6% and 38.7%, respectively), yet traditional banks were largely absent even in these more affordable markets.
In Los Angeles, home to the largest concentration of Latino households in California, Latinos received just 19% of loans from the top 25 lenders.
The report calls on banks to re-establish a meaningful presence in Latino-majority neighborhoods and commit to publicly measurable goals to increase Latino home-purchase lending. It also urges state and federal policymakers to strengthen Community Reinvestment Act obligations and expand the pace of home construction.
