2021 HMDA Data Release | Consumer Finance Monitor

The Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council (FFIEC) recently announcement the public availability of Home Mortgage Disclosure Act data for 2021. The CFPB has also issued a summary Datas. The data includes information on 23.8 million home loan applications, of which 21.1 million are identified as fixed-term loan applications. A total of 15 million applications resulted in loans.

Among other things, the data reflects the following:

• The number of reporting institutions decreased by approximately 3.1%, from 4,475 in 2020 to 4,338 in 2021.

• The share of prime, owner-occupied, site-built home loans made by independent, non-bank mortgage companies increased from 60.7% in 2020 to 63.9% in 2021.

• The share of loans for the purchase of a site-built, owner-occupied, first-tier home granted to (1) black or African American borrowers increased from 7.3% in 2020 to 7.9% in 2021, and (2) of Hispanic-White borrowers fell from 9.1% in 2020 to 9.2% in 2021.
• Denial rates for conventional loans for the purchase of a site-built, owner-occupied home were 15.7% for black or African-American applicants, 9.8% for Hispanic- white, 7.5% for Asian applicants, and 5.6% for non-Hispanic-white applicants. . In its press release, the CFPB observed that “these relationships are similar to those found in previous 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 pricing”.

• The share of loans for the purchase of a site-built, owner-occupied, and first-tier home granted to low- and moderate-income borrowers (borrowers whose income is less than 80% of the region’s median income) increased from 30.4% in 2020 to 28.7% in 2021. In contrast, the share of senior refinancing loans on these properties granted to these borrowers increased from 18.9% in 2020 to 24% in 2021.

• The share of site-built, owner-occupied, and first-lien home purchase loans that were insured by the Federal Housing Administration fell from 19.4% in 2020 to 17.2% in 2021.

In March 2022, the FFIEC released amended 2021 loan/application records for each HMDA reporting institution. In its press release regarding the data, the CFPB notes that “HMDA data is generally not used alone to determine whether a lender is complying with fair lending laws. The data does not include some legitimate credit risk considerations for loan approval and pricing decisions. Therefore, when regulators conduct fair lending reviews, they analyze additional information before passing judgment on an institution’s compliance with fair lending laws.