Lending/HMDA User Guide

What is HMDA?

The Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA) requires most mortgage lenders located in metropolitan areas to disclose information about home lending. HMDA lending data shows us how levels of home buying are changing over time, how many people are refinancing their homes and taking out home improvement loans, approval and rejection rates for loan applications, the characteristics of borrowers, and the extent to which buyers are relying on high interest loans.
The federal government releases HMDA data to the public annually. In 2017, lenders reporting HMDA data originated an estimated 92 percent of mortgages in the U.S. (1)

What HMDA data fields are available from the Florida Housing Data Clearinghouse?

The Clearinghouse provides HMDA summary data at the state, county, and city level in Florida. The Lending/HMDA application provides information about the following data fields.(2)

What can you learn about the state of mortgage lending in Florida communities from the Lending/HMDA application?

These are examples of questions that can be answered about home lending in Florida. Sample state-level tables from the application are provided. To view these tables at the city and county level, see the Lending/HMDA application.

How many home purchase, home improvement, and refinancing loans did Florida borrowers take out last year?

This table shows the number of loans originated for the purchase, improvement, and refinancing of three types of properties 1-4 family properties, manufactured housing, and multifamily buildings with more than four units. Not surprisingly, 1-4 family home purchase loans were the most common types of mortgages, with 317,055 loans originated.

How has lending volume changed over time?

Home lending volume began 2005-2006 at peak levels for all three housing types. The number of loans fell sharply during 2007 and 2008. Lending volume was at its lowest during the 2008-2012 period, then began to recover. As of 2017, the number of loans for 1-4 family home and multifamily purchases had reached 2007 levels and loans for manufactured homes reached 2008 levels.

How much money do households borrow to purchase a home?

Most 1-4 family home purchase loans were for amounts from $100,000-199,999 (37 percent of loans) or $200,000-299,999 (22 percent of loans) in 2017. Only 13,575 loans (four percent) were for $500,000 or more. The Lending/HMDA application also provides tables showing home improvement and refinancing loans by dollar amount.

What reasons do lenders give for rejecting loan applications?

The most common reasons cited for rejecting home purchase loans in 2017 were excessive debt-to-income ratios, insufficient collateral, inadequate credit history, and incomplete credit applications.

How have rates of high-cost (high interest) lending changed over time?

High-cost loans made up a much larger share of home purchase loans during the 2005-2007 housing market peak than afterward. The share of home purchase loans that were high cost ranged from 23 to 41 percent during those years. When lending levels fell, the share of high cost loans also fell sharply–to under 10 percent from 2008 to 2013. The share and number of high cost loans has begun to grow in the years after 2013. Note that the definition of a high-cost loan changed beginning with the last quarter of 2009. See table footnote for more details.

Do the rates of loan approval and high cost loans vary by race and ethnicity of the borrower?

Seventy percent of home purchase loan applications by White applicants resulted in loan originations in 2017, compared to 58 percent for American Indian/Alaska Native applicants, 61 percent for African-American applicants, and 66-67 percent for Asian and Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander applicants. Sixty-six percent of applications by Hispanic/Latino borrowers (of any race) were approved.

Seven percent of home purchase loans originated to Asian borrowers were high cost loans, compared to 13 percent for White borrowers, 14 percent for American Indian/Alaska Native borrowers, 22 percent for African-American borrowers, and 12 percent for Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander applicants. Twenty percent of loans to Hispanic/Latino borrowers (of any race) were high cost.

Note that these figures do not take borrower income, loan amount, or other household, property, or loan characteristics into account.