FFIEC Announces Availability of 2016 Data on Mortgage Lending

For Immediate Release: September 28, 2017

The Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council (FFIEC) today announced the availability of data on mortgage lending transactions at 6,762 U.S. financial institutions covered by the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA). Covered institutions include banks, savings associations, credit unions, and mortgage companies. The HMDA data cover 2016 lending activity and include:

• Applications, originations, purchases, sales of loans, denials, and other actions related to applications
• Loan amounts
• Loan types (conventional, Federal Housing Administration (FHA), Veterans Administration (VA), Rural Housing Service (RHS), or Farm Service Agency (FSA))
• Purposes (home purchase, home improvement, or refinancing)
• Property types (1–4 family, multifamily, or manufactured housing)
• Owner occupancy
• Preapprovals (home purchase loans only)
• Property locations (metropolitan statistical area (MSA), state, county, and census tract)
• Applicant and co-applicant characteristics (race, ethnicity, sex, and income)
• Pricing-related data
• Type of purchasers
• Whether a particular loan is subject to the Home Ownership and Equity Protection Act (HOEPA)
• Whether a particular loan is secured by a first or subordinate lien, or is unsecured

The data also include disclosure statements for each financial institution, aggregate data for each MSA, nationwide summary statistics regarding 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.

Understanding the Data

The 2016 HMDA data use the census tract delineations, population, and housing characteristic data from the 2010 Census and the 2006–2010 American Community Survey (ACS), as has been the case since 2012, when these delineations and data were first used. In addition, the data reflect MSA definitions released by the Office of Management and Budget in 2013 that became effective for HMDA purposes in 2014.

Caution should be used when comparing HMDA data across multiple years for specific geographic areas due to the changes in MSA and census tract boundaries and updates to the population and housing characteristics of census tracts that followed the decennial census and five-year updates based on the ACS data.

The HMDA data are the most comprehensive publicly available information on mortgage market activity. Among other uses, the data help the public determine how financial institutions are serving the housing needs of their local communities and facilitate fair lending and compliance examinations. When examiners evaluate an institution’s fair lending risk, they analyze HMDA data in conjunction with other information and risk factors, in accordance with the Interagency Fair Lending Examination Procedures available at https://www.ffiec.gov/PDF/fairlend.pdf.

The current HMDA data alone cannot be used to determine whether a lender is complying with fair lending laws. The data do not include many potential determinants of loan application and pricing decisions, such as the applicant’s credit history and debt-to-income ratio, the loan-to-value ratio, and other considerations. Therefore, when examiners conduct fair lending examinations, including ones involving loan pricing, they analyze additional information before reaching a determination about an institution’s compliance with fair lending laws.

Observations from the 2016 Data

For 2016, the number of reporting institutions declined by about 2 percent from the previous year to 6,762. While there were some new reporters in 2016, this number was more than offset by the number of institutions that reported in 2015 but did not do so in 2016. In most cases, this is because of mergers and acquisitions.

The 2016 data include information on 13.9 million home loan applications, of which 8.4 million resulted in loan originations, and 2.2 million in purchased loans, for a total of over 16.1 million actions. The data also include information on approximately 530,000 requests for preapprovals for home purchase loans.¹

The total number of originated loans of all types and purposes increased by almost 1 million between 2015 and 2016, or 13 percent. Refinance originations increased by 16 percent, and home purchase lending increased by almost 11 percent.

From 2015 to 2016, the share of 1–4 family home purchase loans made to low- and moderate-income borrowers (those with income of less than 80 percent of area median income) fell from about 27 percent to roughly 25 percent, and the share of refinance loans to low- and moderate-income borrowers decreased from 22 percent to 19 percent.²

In terms of borrower race and ethnicity, the share of home purchase loans for 1–4 family properties made to black borrowers rose from 5.2 percent in 2015 to 5.6 percent in 2016, the share made to Hispanic-white borrowers rose from 7.9 percent to 8.4 percent, and those made to Asian borrowers rose from 5.5 percent to 5.7 percent. The share of refinance loans made to black borrowers remained at 4.9 percent in 2016, the share made to Hispanic-white borrowers remained at 6.1 percent, and those made to Asian borrowers rose from 5.1 percent to 5.6 percent.

In 2016, black and Hispanic-white applicants experienced higher denial rates for 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 do not take into account potential differences in risk characteristics across demographic groups.

In 2016, the FHA-insured share of first-lien home purchase loans for 1–4 family, site-built owner-occupied properties remained at 25 percent. The VA-guaranteed share of such loans remained at approximately 10 percent in 2016. The overall government-backed share of such purchase loans, including FHA, VA, RHS, and FSA loans, was 39 percent in 2016, matching the share in 2015.

The FHA-insured share of first-lien refinance mortgages for 1–4 family, site-built owner-occupied properties fell to 12 percent in 2016 from 14 percent in 2015, while the VA-guaranteed share of such refinance loans increased from 9 percent in 2015 to 12 percent in 2016.

The 2016 HMDA data also include information on loan pricing for loans classified as “higher-priced.” Higher-priced loans are defined as loans with annual percentage rates (APRs) that exceed the average prime offer rates (APORs) by at least 1.5 percentage points for first-lien loans and at least 3.5 percentage points for subordinate lien loans.³ The data on the incidence of higher-priced lending shows that about 5.5 percent of first-lien loans originated in 2016 have APRs that exceed the loan price reporting thresholds, down slightly from about 6 percent in 2015.

As noted above, the HMDA data identify loans that are covered by 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 2016, 1,905 loan originations covered by HOEPA were reported: 1,118 home purchase loans; 285 home improvement loans; and 502 refinance loans.

Additional HMDA Information

Financial institution disclosure statements, individual institutions’ LAR data, and MSA and nationwide aggregate reports are available at https://www.ffiec.gov/hmda. The FFIEC offers these reports in Excel format for both current and historical data. Refer to the HMDA data products at https://www.ffiec.gov/hmda/hmdaproducts.htm for descriptions and formats. HMDA data tools also are available at https://www.consumerfinance.gov/hmda. More information about HMDA data reporting requirements is available on the FFIEC website at https://www.ffiec.gov/hmda/faq.htm.

Financial institutions are required to make their disclosure statements available at their home offices. For other MSAs in which financial institutions have offices, an institution must either make the disclosure statement available at one branch within each MSA or provide a copy upon receiving a written request. Questions about a HMDA report for a specific institution should be directed to the institution’s supervisory agency at the following phone numbers:

• Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation - 877.275.3342; hearing impaired - 800.925.4618
• Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, HMDA Assistance Line - 202.452.2016
• National Credit Union Administration, Office of Consumer Financial Protection and Access - 703.518.1140
• Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, Compliance Risk Policy Division - 202.649.5470
• Consumer Financial Protection Bureau - 202.435.7000
• Department of Housing and Urban Development, Office of Housing - 202.708.0685