WASHINGTON–The Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council (FFIEC) has announced the availability of data on mortgage lending transactions at 7,062 U.S. financial institutions covered by the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA), including credit unions.
The HMDA data made available cover 2014 lending activity, and include applications, originations, purchases and sales of loans, denials, and other actions related to applications.
The data released also include disclosure statements for each financial institution, aggregate data for each metropolitan statistical area (MSA), nationwide summary statistics on lending patterns, and Loan/Application Registers (LARs) for each financial institution (LARs are modified to protect borrower privacy). The FFIEC prepares and distributes this information on behalf of its member agencies.
The HMDA data show the disposition of loan applications and include information on:
- Loan amount
- Loan type (such as conventional, Federal Housing Administration (FHA) or Veterans Administration (VA)
- Purpose (home purchase, home improvement, or refinancing)
- Property type (1-4 family, multifamily, or manufactured housing)
- Property location (MSA, state, county, and census tract)
- Applicant characteristics (race, ethnicity, sex, and income)
- Pricing-related data
The data also show whether a loan is subject to the Home Ownership and Equity Protection Act (HOEPA) and whether a loan is secured by a first or subordinate lien or is unsecured.
The FFIEC said “observations” from the 2014 data show:
- For 2014, the number of reporting institutions declined approximately 2% to 7,062 from 2013, continuing a downward trend since 2006 when about 8,900 lenders reported HMDA data.
- The 2014 data include information on 9.9 million home loan applications—of which, nearly 6.0 million resulted in loan originations—and about 1.8 million loan purchases, for a total of nearly 11.7 million actions.
- The data also include information on about 501,000 requests for preapprovals related to a home purchase loan. The total number of originated loans of all types and purposes declined by about 2.7 million, or 31%, from 2013. Refinance originations declined by 55%, whereas home purchase lending increased by about 4%.
- From 2013 to 2014, the share of home purchase loans for 1-4 family properties made to black borrowers rose from 4.4% to nearly 4.9%, the share made to Hispanic white borrowers rose from 6.9% to 7.5%, and those made to Asian borrowers declined slightly from 6.0% to 5.7%. While the number of refinance loans for 1-4 family properties declined for each of these groups, the share of refinance loans made to black borrowers increased from 4.4% to 5.2%, the share made to Hispanic white borrowers rose from 5% to 6%, and those made to Asian borrowers fell from 4.9% to 4.5%.
- In terms of borrower income, the share of 1-4 family home purchase loans made to low- and moderate-income borrowers (those with income of less than 80% of area median income) declined slightly from about 26% in 2013 to roughly 25% in 2014. Conversely, the share of refinance loans to low- and moderate-income borrowers increased slightly from 20% to 21%.
- Following the recent financial crisis, homebuyers relied heavily on government-backed mortgages, particularly those insured by the FHA or guaranteed by the VA, to finance their purchases, but this reliance has declined somewhat in recent years. In 2014, the FHA-insured share of first-lien home purchase loans for 1-4 family, site-built owner-occupied properties was 21%—down from 24% in 2013, and down from its peak of 42% in 2009.
- The VA-guaranteed share of such loans for 2014 was approximately 10%, increasing from 9% in 2013. Including Rural Housing Service loans, the overall government-backed share of such loans was 37% in 2014, edging down from 38% in 2013, and down from 54% in 2009.