A study being released today by a consumer advocacy group indicates that the racial makeup of a neighborhood — and not income — is the most significant predictor of whether a loan gets made in Baltimore.

“If lenders are not making loans in a community, the opportunities for people to work their way out of poverty is pretty slim,” said John Taylor, president of the National Community Reinvestment Coalition, in a story about the report in today’s New York Times.

“In Baltimore,” Taylor said, “the prevailing factor behind who gets a mortgage is the racial composition of the neighborhood.”

The study notes that while the black population of Baltimore is double that of the white population, banks in 2013 made more than twice as many mortgage loans to whites in the city as they did to blacks.

It also acknowledges that gaps exist in the available data that would aid in understanding the reasons for the denials (the government, for example, does not require reporting of borrowers’ credit scores).

Still the study came up with some stark findings about Baltimore that it called “alarming,” including:

• In 2013, 797 loans were made to blacks in the city, a seemingly tiny number considering that Baltimore’s black population totals almost 400,000. Some 2,000 loans were made to the city’s 175,000 whites.

• In lower-income areas where minorities made up 10 to 19 percent of the population, 72 percent of mortgage applications were approved. But in lower-income areas where minorities made up more than 80 percent of the population, only 59 percent of applicants were approved.

• To those who would say the denials were simply a matter of income, the researchers reply with analysis they say shows otherwise. Quoting from the report:

“In a regression analysis of demographic and socioeconomic factors including indicators of race, ethnicity, education and wealth, the percentage of white residents in a neighborhood was the most important factor in the prediction of lending volume, while percentage Asian and the median home value were significant, though less important, predictors in the model. This points to the preeminence of race as a factor in lending within Baltimore City, with additional factors relating to economic status compounding the relationship.”

In the surrounding suburban counties, the report said, economic factors were the most useful in predicting home purchase lending activity.