Given that, economists and other experts said one should be cautious about drawing any conclusions from the Fed information about discriminatory lending.

Jay Brinkmann, a financial economist at the Mortgage Bankers Association, said the price of a mortgage is based on risk. The rise of high-priced loans in 2005 - the last year of a five-year housing boom - might be related to "borrowers in general having a somewhat higher risk profile on average," he said. "In a sense, the best credit customers stepped in early" in the housing market boom, he said.

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