Minorities have more difficulty finding housing opportunities due to racial discrimination, according to a new study from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

The situation has improved since the days of overt discrimination, but the report says subtle biases creep into the rental and buying process. The department sent 8,000 pairs of trained testers into the housing markets in 28 cities around the country. One tester was white, while the other was either African American, Asian American or Hispanic. Both testers were set up with equally qualified fake backgrounds, yet applicants were treated very differently, even though the only difference between them was their race.

In the rental market, Hispanics fared the worst. "Hispanic renters learn about 12.5 percent fewer available units than equally qualified whites and are shown 7.5 percent fewer units," said the HUD report.

African Americans and Asian Americans fared only slightly better, learning about 11.4 percent and 9.8 percent fewer properties than whites, respectively. Realtors were more reluctant to even show properties to minority clients, let alone actually show the locations.

However, there is good news for Hispanics looking to buy homes. "Overall differences in treatment for Hispanic homebuyers are not statistically significant, and Hispanics are not recommended or shown a statistically different number of homes per inquiry than comparably qualified white homebuyers. This result extends across many forms of treatment and across the metropolitan areas where testing was conducted. As discussed further later, it also reflects a longer-term decline in discrimination against Hispanic homebuyers," says the report.

Unfortunately, blacks and Asians were discriminated against even more than in the rental market.

View the full HUD report here, or take a look at the executive summary first.