WASHINGTON–The Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council (FFIEC) has made available data on mortgage lending transactions at 5,683 U.S. financial institutions covered by the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA).
Covered institutions include banks, savings associations, credit unions, and mortgage companies.
The information released includes loan-level HMDA data covering 2018 lending activity that were submitted on or before August 7, 2019.
The data include a total of 48 data points providing information about the applicants, the property securing the loan or proposed to secure the loan in the case of non-originated applications, the transaction, and identifiers, reported the FFIEC, of which NCUA is a member. Many of the data points are available for the first time in the 2018 HMDA data. A complete list of HMDA data points and the associated data fields is found in Appendix A of the FFIEC’s Filing Instructions Guide for HMDA Data Collected in 2018.
The FFIEC reminded certain smaller-volume financial institutions are not required to report all of these data, pursuant to the Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief, and Consumer Protection Act (EGRRCPA).
How to Access Data
The HMDA loan-level data available to the public will be updated, on an ongoing basis, to reflect late submissions and resubmissions. Accordingly, loan-level data downloaded from https://ffiec.cfpb.gov/ at a later date will include any such updated data, the FFIEC said. An August 7, 2019 static dataset used to develop the observations in this statement about the 2018 HMDA data is available here. In addition, beginning in late March 2019, Loan/Application Registers (LARs) for each HMDA filer of 2018 data, modified to protect borrower privacy, became available at https://ffiec.cfpb.gov/data-publication/.
Specific Data Points
Among the data points released:
- For 2018, the number of reporting institutions declined by about 2.9% from the previous year to 5,683. The 2018 data include information on 12.9 million home loan applications. Among them, 10.3 million were closed-end, 2.3 million were open-end, and, for another 378,000 records, pursuant to the EGRRCPA’s partial exemptions, financial institutions did not indicate whether the records were closed-end or open-end.
- A total of 7.7 million applications resulted in loan originations. Among them, 6.3 million were closed-end mortgage originations, 1.1 million were open-end line of credit originations, and, pursuant to the EGRRCPA’s partial exemptions, 283,000 were originations for which financial institutions did not indicate whether they were closed-end or open-end. The 2018 data include 2.0 million purchased loans, for a total of 15.1 million records. The data also include information on approximately 177,000 requests for preapprovals for home purchase loans.
- The total number of originated loans decreased by about 924,000 between 2017 and 2018, or 12.6%. Refinance originations decreased by 23.1% from 2.5 million, and home purchase lending increased by 0.3% from 4.3 million.
- A total of 2,251 reporters made use of the EGRRCPA’s partial exemptions for at least one of the 26 data points eligible for the exemptions. In all, they account for about 425,000 records and 298,000 originations.
- From 2017 to 2018, the share of home purchase loans for first lien, 1-4 family, site-built, owner-occupied properties (1-4 family, owner-occupied properties) made to low- and moderate-income borrowers (those with income of less than 80% of area median income) rose slightly from 26.3% to 28.1%, and the share of refinance loans to low- and moderate-income borrowers for 1-4 family, owner-occupied properties increased from 22.9% to 30.0%.
- In terms of borrower race and ethnicity, the share of home purchase loans for 1-4 family, owner-occupied properties made to Black borrowers rose from 6.4% in 2017 to 6.7% in 2018, the share made to Hispanic-White borrowers increased slightly from 8.8% to 8.9%, and those made to Asian borrowers rose from 5.8% to 5.9%. From 2017 to 2018, the share of refinance loans for 1-4 family, owner-occupied properties made to Black borrowers increased from 5.9% to 6.2%, the share made to Hispanic-White borrowers remained unchanged at 6.8%, and the share made to Asian borrowers fell from 4.0% to 3.7%.
- In 2018, Black and Hispanic-White applicants experienced higher denial rates for 1-4 family, owner-occupied conventional home purchase loans than non-Hispanic-White applicants. The denial rate for Asian applicants is more comparable to the denial rate for non-Hispanic-White applicants. These relationships are similar to those found in earlier years and, due to the limitations of the HMDA data mentioned above cannot take into account all legitimate credit risk considerations for loan approval and loan pricing.
- The Federal Housing Administration (FHA)-insured share of first-lien home purchase loans for 1-4 family, owner-occupied properties declined from 22.0% in 2017 to 19.3% in 2018. The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA)-guaranteed share of such loans remained at approximately 10% in 2018. The overall government-backed share of such purchase loans, including FHA, VA, Rural Housing Service, and Farm Service Agency loans, was 32.0% in 2018, down slightly from 35.4% in 2017.
- The FHA-insured share of refinance mortgages for 1-4 family, owner-occupied properties decreased slightly to 12.8% in 2018 from 13.0% in 2017, while the VA-guaranteed share of such refinance loans decreased from 11.3% in 2017 to 10.2% in 2018.
- The share of mortgages originated by nondepository, independent mortgage companies has increased in recent years. In 2018, this group of lenders accounted for 57.2% of 1-4 family, owner-occupied home-purchase loans, up from 56.1% in 2017. Independent mortgage companies also originated 56.1% of 1-4 family, owner-occupied refinance loans, an increase from 55.8% in 2017.
- The HMDA data also identify loans that are covered by the Home Ownership and Equity Protection Act (HOEPA). Under HOEPA, certain types of mortgage loans that have interest rates or total points and fees above specified levels are subject to certain requirements, such as additional disclosures to consumers, and also are subject to various restrictions on loan terms. For 2018, 6,681 loan originations covered by HOEPA were reported: 3,654 home purchase loans for 1-4 family properties; 448 home improvement loans for 1-4 family properties; and 2,579 refinance loans for 1-4 family properties.
- For the newly-reported age data point, the two most commonly reported age groups for applicants were 35-44 and 45-54, with 22.7 and 22.4% of total applications, respectively. Just under 3.0% of applicants were under 25 and just under 4.0% of applicants were over 74.
- Credit score information was reported for 73.1% of all applications. Equifax Beacon 5.0, Experian Fair Isaac, and FICO Risk Score Classic 04 were the three most commonly reported credit scoring models at 22.8%, 18.8% and 18.2% of total applications, respectively. For originated loans, the median primary applicant scores for these three models were between 738 and 746. This compares to medians ranging from 682 to 686 for denied applications.
- Combined loan-to-value ratio (CLTV) was reported for 74.3% of total applications. For originations of closed-end, conventional home purchase loans, the median CLTV was 80, with 46.2% of originations over 80.0. For originations of closed-end, FHA-insured home purchase loans, the median CLTV was 96.5, with 24.9% over 96.5.
- Debt-to-income ratio (DTI) was reported for 75.3% of total applications. Approximately 45.1% of applications had DTIs between 36.0% and 50%, with 7.0% of applications with less than 20%, and 7.1% with greater than 60%.
- The 2018 HMDA also contains additional pricing information. For example, the median total loan costs for originated closed-end loans was $3,949. For about 42.5% of originated closed-end loans, borrowers paid no discount points and received no lender credits. The median interest rate for these originated loans was 4.8%. The median interest rate for originated open-end lines of credit excluding reverse mortgages was 5.0%.