Puerto Rican Homeowners Paid Less for Conventional Mortgages

Puerto Rican homeowners benefited from lower proportions of high interest rate mortgages as compared with the rest of the United States. The 2007 HMDA data shows that roughly 18% of first lien mortgages on owner occupied single family homes in Puerto Rico had reportable interest rate spreads.

The rate spread values found in HMDA data are differences in the mortgage annual percentage rate and the interest rates of US Treasury securities with similar maturities. If the rate spread is greater than 3% then the rate spread is reportable in the HMDA data. In all US metropolitan areas, the mean proportion of rate spread reportable mortgages versus all mortgages was 27%.

In 2007 versus 2006, all US metropolitan areas except Puerto Rico showed a decrease in the proportion of rate spread reportable mortgages. For the entire US including Puerto Rico, the percent change in the number of rate spread reportable mortgages was almost 9% lower in 2007 versus 2006. In Puerto Rico the proportion of rate spread reportable mortgages increased nearly 5%. For the reported rate spreads in Puerto Rico the interest rate spread increased from 3.813 % in 2006 to 3.954% in 2007.

Here are the mortgage lenders that participated in charging Puerto Rican homeowners higher interest rates in 2007. (lot of ways to spin the data)!