Data is now available on mortgage lending transactions at 6,762 U.S. financial institutions covered by the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA) for 2016.
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 Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council (FFIEC) prepares and distributes this information on behalf of its member agencies.
The number of reporting institutions in 2016 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 resulted 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.
In terms of borrower race and ethnicity, the share of home purchase loans for one- to four-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.
Black and Hispanic-white applicants in 2016 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.
The FHA-insured share of first-lien home purchase loans for one- to four-family, site-built owner-occupied properties remained at 25 percent in 2016. 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.
