Phoenix has been touted recently as recovering from the housing crisis faster than other metropolitan areas. But not everyone has equal access to the recovery.

Deirdre Pfeiffer, Assistant Professor at Arizona State University, said coming out of the recession, home loans were not offered equally to Latinos.

“You know, they were getting terms that were not the same as non-Hispanic whites. Higher interest rates, lower down payments, things like that,” Pfeiffer said.

She said today it is still legal to accept very low down payments for a home and to charge different interest rates. 

“Banks don’t have to disclose why they may be giving someone an interest rate that is two points to three points higher than someone else, so they are still able to engage in that practice and that’s called subprime lending,” Pfeiffer said.

Subprime lending by banks is still legal and can be attractive to a first-time homebuyer who can’t afford a down payment.

Dirk Swift is with the Arizona Housing Finance Authority which provides state and federally funded down payment assistance.

“The last thing we want to do is take someone’s last two nickels to get them into a home and then the first curve ball that they face is an unexpected bill that causes them to go delinquent,” Swift said.

He said home ownership rates in Arizona and nationally are the lowest they have been in decades.