Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA) data

Since its enactment in 1975, the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA) requires most mortgage lenders located in metropolitan areas to collect data about their housing-related lending activity, report the data annually to the government, and make the data publicly available. The information is collected annually from mortgage lenders by the Federal Financial Institution Examination Council (FFIEC). In 2011, over 16.3 million loan records for calendar year 2010 were reported by 7,923 institutions, including all of the nation’s large mortgage lenders. The Federal Reserve Board estimates that HMDA data cover 90-95% of Federal Housing Administration lending each year, and between 75-85% of other first lien home loans. As such, each year’s HMDA data are broadly representative of mortgage lending activity in the U.S. Data reported by each mortgage lender include the disposition of each mortgage application received (e.g., accept vs. reject), type and purpose of loan applications (e.g., home purchase vs. refinance), characteristics of each home mortgage originated or purchased during the year, the census-tract designations of the properties related to those loans, loan pricing information, personal demographic and other information about loan applicants (including race/ethnicity and income), and information about loan sales. Data are generally available online by geographic area and be mortgage institutions for each year from 1999 – present.