Women generally have better credit scores than men, so why do they pay considerably more for mortgages than men?

That is the question at the heart of a study released last month by the Consumer Federation of America, a nonprofit advocacy group, showing that women are 32 percent more likely to carry mortgages with high interest rates than men with similar incomes. And wealthier women were 50 percent more likely to carry expensive loans than their male counterparts.

“When people are paying 7.5 percent or 9.5 percent interest on a mortgage loan, it really slows the wealth-building effect of home ownership,” said Allen Fishbein, the federation’s director of housing and credit policy. “It can be a tremendous drain.”

The study, which relied on 2005 federal data on mortgages from across the country, focused on so-called subprime loans, which lenders typically market to those with credit ratings lower than 660 and with other credit characteristics that make them higher-risk borrowers. In 2005, interest rates on prime mortgage loans averaged 5.87 percent, Mr. Fishbein said, compared with 7.66 percent for subprime loans, and more than 9.66 percent for the highest-cost category of subprime loans.

In 2005, according to the study, 10 percent of women who took out mortgages received the highest-cost subprime loans, compared with about 7.5 percent of men.

Mr. Fishbein said that although the data he used for the study did not include credit scores and debt-to-income ratios, this would not have been enough to explain the mortgage discrepancies between men and women.

Mr. Fishbein said the most likely reason for the disparity was that women were less familiar with the mortgage market than men and were therefore less likely to shop around for the best mortgage deal. “There is some research indicating that women are, on the whole, less likely than men to bargain for major consumer purchases and credit transactions,” he said.

“And one of the things that’s still relatively unknown is that mortgage loans can be negotiated with lenders and brokers,” Mr. Fishbein added.

Mortgage industry executives and consumer advocates alike say that borrowers should start their mortgage shopping by getting free credit reports from major reporting bureaus like Experian, TransUnion and Equifax. (Borrowers can often spruce up their ratings by getting errors and black marks removed.)

After that, borrowers should research the going rates for mortgage loans given to prime borrowers. Rates typically quoted on banks’ Web sites and by aggregators like BankRate.com reflect prime interest rates. The lower borrowers’ credit scores, the higher the interest rates they can expect to pay, but lenders and brokers compete aggressively for business, and they will often reduce their fees and interest rates if borrowers bring in competing offers.

African-American women are particularly likely to take out subprime loans, according to the study. In fact, those who earn less than the median income in their region are nearly two and a half times more likely to receive a subprime mortgage than white men with the same incomes. Upper-income African-American women are nearly five times more likely to receive such loans than upper-income white men.

Ellen Bitton, the chief executive of the Park Avenue Mortgage Group, a brokerage firm in Manhattan, said she was surprised by the findings. “Maybe there are other markets in the country where the numbers are really coming from,” she said, “but it doesn’t seem to me to reflect the market in New York City.”

In some cases, Ms. Bitton said, a couple with a bankruptcy or a foreclosure on their record will take out a subprime mortgage because it is the only option. “And many times the husband has the lower credit score, so they might put the mortgage into the wife’s name,” she said.

Otherwise, Ms. Bitton said, “I’m really shocked by this data.”

Taxpayers are entitled to claim deductions for their principal residence and one vacation or second home. Except for unusual situations, the ownership tax breaks for a primary residence are generally limited to the mortgage interest and property tax deductions.

However, tax savings from owning a second or vacation home are a bit more complicated and are often greater. Depending on your personal-use time, and with some advance tax planning, your vacation or second home can produce significant tax savings.

FOUR TAX CATEGORIES FOR SECOND OR VACATION HOMES. Mortgage interest and property tax payments for your second or vacation home are always tax-deductible. However, if you own a third home, it does not qualify for the mortgage interest and property tax deductions unless it is a rental property.

Your personal use time determines which of the four categories apply to your second or vacation home:

1. NO PERSONAL-USE TIME. If your second home was rented or available for rental during all of 2006, with zero personal-use time, it is treated as rental property. Even if you occupied it a few days while making repairs, your second home falls into this desirable category.

The tax result is your rental income and expenses are reported on Schedule E of your income tax returns. Don’t forget the non-cash depreciation deduction for wear, tear and obsolescence, which can result in substantial tax savings, either in the current tax year or “suspended” for use in a future tax year.

Applicable deductible expenses in this category include mortgage interest, property taxes, insurance, homeowner association fees, utility bills you paid, repairs, and depreciation. You can also deduct reasonable “ordinary and necessary” travel expenses to inspect (but not occupy) your rental property, even it is in such remote hardship locations as the U.S. Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, or Hawaii.

When you hire a professional property manager to rent vacancies and collect rents, to claim the deductions specified above you must “materially participate” in managing your second home. That means it cannot be in a “rental pool” managed by others and you must own at least a 10 percent interest in the property.

Material participation includes setting standards for tenants, establishing the rent and approving tenants, even if the day-to-day management is left to others.

If you materially participate in managing your second-home rental and if your 2006 adjusted gross income is $100,000 or less, then you can deduct up to $25,000 of second-home tax loss from your other ordinary taxable income.

If your adjusted gross income is between $100,000 and $150,000, then your second-home tax loss gradually phases out. Above $150,000 adjusted gross income, you cannot claim any second-home tax loss.

But the good news is any unused tax loss exceeding the $25,000 limit can be “suspended” for use in a future tax year or when the property is sold to offset taxable gains.

However, if you are a “real estate professional” spending at least 750 hours annually on your real estate activities, then you can claim unlimited deductions from your rental property from your ordinary income. One spouse can qualify and need not hold a realty license, even if the other spouse works full-time elsewhere.

2. LESS THAN 14 DAYS OF ANNUAL RENTAL. If you rent your second or vacation home less than 14 days per year, in this tax category you can deduct your mortgage interest, property taxes and any uninsured casualty loss, such as water damage. But other expenses such as insurance premiums and repair costs are not tax deductible.

In this category, if you rent your second home less than 14 days per year, that rental income is completely tax-free and need not be reported on your income tax returns.

3. ANNUAL PERSONAL USE BELOW 15 DAYS OR 10 PERCENT OF THE RENTAL DAYS. This is the most desirable tax category for a second home. There is no limit to your tax loss deductions against your ordinary taxable income (except the $25,000 annual passive loss limit explained above). Rental income and deductible expenses are reported on Schedule E of your tax returns.

To illustrate, suppose you occupied your second home for 12 days in 2006 and you rented it to tenants for four months in the summer (or winter). Since your personal occupancy time was below 15 days per year, and below 10 percent of the rental days, you can deduct up to $25,000 of expense losses exceeding the rental income, including depreciation, from your adjusted gross income not exceeding $100,000. But Internal Revenue Code 183 says you must show a rental-activity profit at least three of every five years in this category.

4. ANNUAL PERSONAL-USE TIME OVER 14 DAYS OR 10 PERCENT OF THE RENTAL DAYS (IF RENTED MORE THAN 14 DAYS IN 2006). This category of heavy personal use and modest rental time results in the lowest tax savings benefits.

Rental income must be reported on Schedule E, along with the applicable rental expenses. However, in this category, any resulting tax loss when rental expenses exceed the rent collected cannot be deducted against ordinary income from other sources, such as job salary. But unused losses are “suspended” for use in future tax years so keep track of these unused tax losses.

The proper order for deducting second- or vacation-home expenses in this heavy personal-use category is mortgage interest, property taxes, uninsured casualty losses, operating expenses applicable to the rental period such as insurance and repairs, and depreciation for the rental period.

If mortgage interest, property taxes and uninsured casualty loss expenses exceed the rental income, they become itemized personal deductions on Schedule A of your tax returns.

CONCLUSION: Second or vacation homes are not great tax shelters, but they can save significant tax dollars while the property usually appreciates in market value for future resale profits.

A possible tax benefit, when you are thinking about selling your second or vacation home, is to move in to convert it to your full-time principal residence for at least 24 of the last 60 months before its sale. Then up to $250,000 principal-residence-sale capital gains will be tax-free (up to $500,000 for a qualified married couple filing joint tax returns in the year of sale). Full details are available from your tax adviser.

Recent years have seen a flurry of proposals and legislation directed toward predatory mortgage lending. The focus, however, has been almost entirely on loan originations. Aside from a few well-publicized lawsuits, predatory servicing has attracted little attention, yet in many respects it is more vicious, and the adverse consequences are more far-ranging.

The loan origination market is a minefield for borrowers, to be sure, but they do have choices. Exercising intelligence and care, and with a little homework, they can find a loan provider who will treat them fairly. When the loan is closed and shifted to a servicing agent, however, the borrower’s choices disappear.

Borrowers have no say whatever in choosing the firm that will be servicing their loan. They cannot fire that firm for cause, no matter how wretched the firm’s service. The only way they can extricate themselves from a predatory servicer is to refinance, which is costly, with no assurance that the next servicer will be any better.

The financial incentives to provide good service to customers, which work in other sectors of our economy, work only selectively with loan servicing. Servicers who originate loans have an incentive to provide good service to those borrowers they view as potential clients for new loans or other services. The incentive disappears, however, for borrowers with spotty payment records, who are not viewed as potential customers for other services.

An incentive to provide good service doesn’t exist at all for specialized servicing firms who have nothing to sell. Such firms will not get more customers by improving service quality — only higher costs — nor will they lose customers if they provide poor service. Their incentive is to generate as much revenue as possible from borrowers. It is hardly surprising that such firms figure so prominently in discussions of predatory servicing.

Predatory servicing could be reduced or eliminated by legislation that restricted the sale of servicing contracts, or gave borrowers the right to change servicers. However, these would be drastic changes that would be very difficult to enact. The alternative is to identify predatory practices and make them illegal. Here is a partial list:

Mandatory Provision of Complete and Comprehensible Monthly Statement. The law should require servicers to provide easy-to-understand monthly statements showing everything that transpired during the month that affected the borrower’s account. This should include balance changes and their sources, payments, disbursements, rate adjustments, and fees.

Rationale: In the absence of comprehensible monthly statements, predatory practices can go unnoticed by the borrower indefinitely.

No Suspension of Payments Because of an Escrow Shortage. Servicers should be prohibited from placing scheduled payments of principal and interest in suspense accounts when only the escrow payment is short.

Rationale: This pernicious practice results in unnecessary delinquencies and late payments, and can lead down a slippery slope to collections and ultimate foreclosure.

No Profits From Loans in Collection. On services purchased from third parties in connection with a loan in collections, such as legal fees and property inspections, servicers should be barred from marking up third-party fees, receiving payments for referral of business, or purchasing the services from affiliated entities.

Rationale: Profiting from loans in collections provides an incentive to move borrowers to that status unnecessarily. It also increases the cost to borrowers struggling to return to good standing by paying back arrears.

Mandatory Reporting to Credit Bureaus. Servicers would be required to report payment history on all their accounts.

Rationale: Servicers should not be able to cripple the ability of borrowers to refinance profitably by not reporting good payment records to the credit bureaus.

No Conversions to Simple Interest. On purchased servicing contracts, the purchasing servicer should not be permitted to convert a mortgage to simple interest merely because the note does not explicitly prevent it.

Rationale: Simple-interest mortgages, which accrue interest daily, are more problematic for borrowers than standard monthly accrual mortgages. If a borrower did not negotiate a simple-interest mortgage at origination, a later conversion to simple interest following the transfer of servicing is unconscionable.

Mandatory Disclosure of Policy Toward Crediting Extra Payments. Servicers should disclose exactly what their procedures are for crediting extra payments to the loan balance.

Rationale: Borrowers making extra payments of principal have the right to this information so that they can plan their schedule of extra payments in the most advantageous way.

Mandatory Retention of Complete Servicing Files. Servicers should be required to retain the complete file on every account until it is paid off. When servicing is transferred to a new servicer, the purchasing firm should be required to obtain the complete file.

Rationale: Servicers should be prevented from covering up abusive practices by selling the servicing to another firm while leaving evidence of the abuses behind.

Even if you don’t itemize your income tax deductions and claim the standard deduction, if you are one of the more than 25 million taxpayers who changed homes in 2006, you may be entitled to big tax savings for your household moving expenses as an “adjustment to gross income.”

To qualify, you must also have changed your job location in 2006. It doesn’t matter if you work for the same employer, changed employers, became self-employed, or started your first job.

You must meet the job-location-change rule to be eligible for moving-cost deductions. Either spouse can qualify, but part-time work does not count.

THE JOB-LOCATION-CHANGE TEST. If you changed your residence location, but you also didn’t change job locations, you are not eligible to deduct household moving costs. The simple job-location-change test requires your new job site to be at least 50 miles further away from your old home than was your old job location.

To illustrate, suppose the distance from your old home to your old job location was 10 miles. Your new job must be at least 50 miles further away from your old home. That’s 10 plus 50, or 60 miles, in this example from your old home to your new job location.

If you passed this first test to qualify for the moving-expense tax deduction, then you must also pass a more difficult test.

THE WORK-TIME TEST. Your second and final test to qualify for the moving-expense tax deduction requires you to stay in the vicinity of your new job site and work full time at least 39 weeks during the 52 weeks after your residence move. However, time spent searching for a new job doesn’t count and you need not continue working for the same employer or at the same location.

If you are self-employed, this test requires you to work at least 78 weeks full time in the vicinity of your new qualifying job location during the 104 weeks after the household move.

The purpose of this tougher test is to prevent self-employeds from deducting moving costs if, after moving, they work only a few hours each week. But this work-time test is waived for job layoffs, disability, or the taxpayer’s death.

DON’T PANIC IF YOU DON’T MEET THIS TEST BY APRIL 16, 2007. Most taxpayers who meet the job-location-change test won’t meet the work-time test before their tax returns are due by April 16, 2007 (April 15 is on a Sunday). That’s all right. Uncle Sam understands.

If you meet the 50-mile additional-job-distance test but you haven’t yet met the work-time test by April 16, 2007, you have a choice if you expect to continue working in the vicinity of your new job site.

Your first choice is to claim the moving-expense tax deduction and then, if you later become ineligible, you can amend your tax returns and pay the additional tax.

Your second choice is to not claim the moving-expense tax deduction but, when you later meet the work-time test, then file an IRS Form 1040X to claim the moving-expense deduction, which will probably result in a tax refund for you.

Most tax advisers suggest making the first choice because if you don’t claim the moving-expense deduction when filing your tax returns you might forget to later amend your tax return to claim a tax refund.

INDIRECT MOVING EXPENSES ARE NOT TAX-DEDUCTIBLE. If you have read this far, you probably want to know how much is deductible. To answer that question, it is critical to understand there are indirect and direct moving expenses. One is deductible; the other is not.

An indirect moving expense, which is not deductible, involves costs related to the move but not part of the actual household move.

Examples of indirect, nondeductible expenses include pre-move inspection-trip airline fares, meals enroute during the move, and real estate sales or lease commissions. Also, the costs of moving your butler, cook, maid, chauffeur, nurse, and nanny are nondeductible indirect moving costs.

NO LIMIT ON DEDUCTIONS FOR DIRECT MOVING COSTS. The good news is there is no limit to your direct moving-cost deductions. Examples of deductible direct household moving costs include costs of hiring a moving van, in-transit storage up to 30 days, pet shipping expense, moving insurance, and even expenses for transporting your “personal effects” such as your yacht, horse and recreational vehicle.

If you fly from your old location to your new city, the airline, train or bus fare is deductible. Or, if you drive from your old home to your new home, you can deduct actual out-of-pocket automobile expenses, such as gasoline and oil, but not auto repairs and depreciation.

Or, you can elect the standard 18 cents per mile for moves in 2006, plus parking and tolls. In addition, costs of lodging — but not meals — enroute are deductible.

EMPLOYER REIMBURSEMENTS MIGHT AFFECT MOVING-COST TAX DEDUCTIONS. If your employer reimburses you for direct moving costs for which you have receipts, there is no additional taxable income because the deductible moving costs are offset by the employer reimbursement.

However, if your employer gave you a flat moving-cost allowance, the excess allowance exceeding your deductible direct moving costs is taxable income. Employer reimbursement for nondeductible indirect moving costs, such as a pre-move house-hunting trip, is taxable income for the employee.

Members of the U.S. Armed Forces have special rules that do not include moving and storage expenses furnished by the military or cash reimbursements for expenses actually paid. There is also an income exclusion for moving and storage costs incurred by a spouse and dependents of the Armed Forces member even if they do not reside with the military member before or after the move.

However, reimbursements in excess of actual moving costs are included in the service member’s gross income, but moving expenses exceeding reimbursements are tax deductible. Further moving-cost deduction details are available from your tax adviser.

And renovating a home in a designated historical district makes the task even more formidable.

Dee Lanzalotti, a real estate broker, is quick to give potential purchasers in the town’s historic district a dose of reality. “A lot of buyers will come down and look at a house and say, ‘We can replace this with vinyl siding,’ But not here. It has to be wood,” said Ms. Lanzalotti, speaking of the Victorian houses that are characteristic to the district. “Anything to do with the exterior of the house is governed by the Historic Preservation Commission, from the fencing, the roofing, and the windows.”

Buying a property with a history and then renovating it, from building an addition to simply changing the color of the front door, can entail having plans approved by not only the town’s zoning board but also by a local historical preservation board.

The good news is that renovating a historical property can come with tax breaks. Though the 20 percent federal tax credit for a renovation on a qualifying historical home is reserved for investment properties, many states, including Michigan and Missouri, offer state income tax credits for improvements on primary and second homes. Additionally, most states offer some type of property tax incentive, such as a property tax freeze, on historical homes that have been restored.

A home may also be registered with a state historic register, and additionally, it can be submitted for inclusion in the National Resister of Historic Places, which includes some 81,000 listings of properties and historic districts and is overseen by the National Park Service.

While neither designation has any bearing on renovation restrictions, they do prevent the government from going forward with certain projects, such as a road widening or a new Interstate, that might compromise the property. “It is a way of protecting the homeowner,” said Gerry Kasper, a real estate agent who specializes in historic properties and owns historic homes. “Where you get constraints on homes is if the town enacts a historical ordinance,” he said. “A town could say any houses built prior to X year or a homeowner in a certain area needs to get a variance in order to do something to that property.”

Take Jan Jacobson’s rental property … The three-level house, built in 1794, was in need of a renovation in 2001 and Ms. Jacobson and her husband began the process to make improvements, including overhauling a restaurant on the first floor. The couple had to submit their plans to the local board. “They are pretty strict.” Ms. Jacobson said. “We didn’t do a thing to the outside of the building.”

It’s advantageous for quaint, tourist-popular towns to have such ordinances to protect their town centers, areas which which attract visitors because of their historical appeal. And typically their regulations apply only to the outside of the building.

In the village of Mendocino, Calif., about 150 miles north of San Francisco, the Mendocino Historical Review Board can dictate the type of windows, siding and even paint color on a house in the historical district. “You couldn’t paint something bright orange,” said Carol Greenberg, a Mendocino realtor, noting that she needed the board’s approval of a sign to hang outside of her real estate business when it opened last September.

And in areas without formal historic districts there are grassroots movements to slow the pace of teardowns.

In Finesville, N.J., there is an effort to create a historical district encompassing about 70 homes in the old mill town that date back to as early as 1750. With state recognition, the district can apply for inclusion in the National Register. The next step is going to the town board and proposing a set of rules that will limit what can be demolished.

In addition to protecting older homes from being torn down the effort aims to help ensure that the town maintains its open space. After all … New Jersey will pave over anything.

Missing out on a home you’d like to own can be heartbreaking. But, not all home sale transactions close, so you might have a second chance. Or, you could consider making a backup offer.

A backup offer is an offer that is negotiated like any other offer until the buyers and sellers reach a price and terms that are mutually acceptable. A unique term of the agreement is that it is accepted as a backup offer subject to the collapse of a previously accepted offer that is in primary position.

In an active, low inventory market, a seller might receive multiple offers and accept more than one backup offer. In this case, the backup offers would be ranked. For example, backup offer #3 would be subject to the collapse of backup offer #2 and backup offer #2 would be subject to the collapse of the primary offer.

Backup offers also come into play in softer markets. The best listings at the best prices attract the most buyer attention regardless of market conditions. Even in a slow market a prime listing can sell quickly. If you’re a little late to the table and no one else beat you to it, you might look into submitting a backup offer. But, first, consider the pros and cons.

One disadvantage is that you may be tempted to postpone looking at any other listings until you find out if the first deal goes through. By doing so, you could potentially miss out on other good properties.

HOUSE HUNTING TIP: If you decide you want a property enough to accept a backup position, continue to look at new listings that fit your parameters. Also make sure that your contract includes a provision that allows you to withdraw from the contract without penalty at any time up until you are notified that your offer is in primary position.

Another disadvantage of being in backup position is that your commitment to buy the property could strengthen the primary buyers’ resolve to continue with the transaction, even when issues come up like property defects that might otherwise kill the deal.

Be aware that the sellers may have the right to renegotiate their contract with the primary buyers.

Because of these drawbacks, many buyers shy away from making backup offers. They prefer to wait on the sidelines to see what happens with the first contract. A benefit of this approach is that the sellers might be easier to work with after having had a deal fall apart.

There is, however, a risk in this approach. An attractive listing could draw serious interest from other buyers. If so, one of them might end up in backup position and preclude you from buying the property

When there’s an accepted backup offer, a listing doesn’t come back on the market when the primary contract fails. The backup buyer is elevated to primary position without giving other buyers a chance to buy the property.

Before deciding whether or not to make a backup offer, try to find out how much interest there is in the property. If there are other buyers serious about the property, it might be worth your while to submit an offer for a backup position.

The other risk of waiting to see if the first deal collapses is that you could find yourself in competition with other buyers who are also waiting to see what happens.

A lot of time and emotional energy goes in to making any offer. Some buyers would rather save this effort for a listing that is definitely available to buy.

THE CLOSING: The best stance to adopt if you’re a backup buyer is: If it’s meant to be, it will happen.