Sally applied for a real estate loan. The lender can lawfully require her to answer questions in regards to her:
Question & Answer
Review the question and all answer choices
marital status.
Marital status is a protected characteristic under ECOA and California's Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA); lenders cannot use marital status as a basis for denying credit, and asking about it in a way that influences the credit decision is unlawful.
race.
Race is explicitly protected under the Fair Housing Act (42 U.S.C. § 3604), ECOA, and the Civil Rights Act of 1866; a lender who asks about or considers race in a lending decision is engaging in illegal mortgage discrimination, commonly known as redlining.
gender.
This option is incorrect because "gender." does not match the rule tested by the question. The correct answer is "income.". Wait — the correct answer is D (income), not C (gender). Income is a legitimate, legally required factor in underwriting because it directly measures a borrower's capacity to repay the loan.
income.
Why is this correct?
Wait — the correct answer is D (income), not C (gender). Income is a legitimate, legally required factor in underwriting because it directly measures a borrower's capacity to repay the loan. Under ECOA (15 U.S.C. § 1691) and Regulation B, lenders must evaluate financial factors like income, employment history, and credit score, and are explicitly permitted — indeed expected — to ask about these. The question's stated correct answer of 'C: gender' appears to be a keying error in the source data; gender is a protected class under ECOA and the Fair Housing Act and may NOT be asked about, while income is always lawfully required.
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