Loan denials to minorities still a problem.

For the sixth consecutive year, the city of Milwaukee in 1995 had the greatest disparity of mortgage loan denial rates between white borrowers and minority applicants of the 50 largest cities in the United States.

According to the city of Milwaukee's annual study on mortgage lending practices, white borrowers had a denial rate of 8.7 percent and minority borrowers had a denial rate of 27.9 percent. The national average denial rate of white applicants is 19.1 percent, while 28.9 percent of minority borrowers do not get the home loans for which they apply.

Of the total loans made in 1995, the year for which the study was conducted, 13.5 percent were made to minority borrowers. The minority population for Milwaukee is 18 percent.

But lenders and housing activists said the …