From African-Americans to American Indians, minority applicants for home-mortgage loans received approvals at much higher rates last year than in the previous year, according to the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council. Making the trend even more impressive was the fact that the number of applications actually fell in 1999.

• Lenders extended 11 percent more home loans to blacks, compared with an increase of 1.7 for whites.

• Loans to American Indians jumped 44.4 percent, while those to Hispanics rose 18.3 percent.

• Asian-Americans benefited by a 16.3 percent increase in approvals.

Nevertheless, signs of discrimination remain, say observers: African-Americans were denied mortgage loans 49 percent of the time, compared to 25.5 percent of the time for whites. Even when the data compared different ethnic groups within the same income categories, whites received loans more often than African-Americans.

Source: Nicholas Kulish, "Number of Home-Mortgage Loans Approved for Minorities Rose Last Year," Wall Street Journal, August 9, 2000.