Investigate lending practices in your community

​​The Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA) database has just been updated in the NICAR Data Library.​ Loan application records for 2014 are now available. ​

HMDA requires all banks, savings and loans, savings banks and credit unions with assets of more than $33 million and offices in metropolitan areas to report mortgage applications. 

WHAT CAN I DO WITH IT?

You can analyze lending practices in your area, including variations between different races and ethnicities. Reporters have used this data to show that black applicants were four times as likely as whites to get high interest rates, even when they had substantially higher incomes.

You can look at trends in foreclosures on homes that had harsh terms on loans. Reporters have also used HMDA data and foreclosure reports to explain how unstable mortgage loans were causing uninformed borrowers to lose their homes.

Check out these tipsheets for further advice how to use HMDA data:

• Burrowing into HMDA: A rundown on what you need to have to do HMDA data-based stories and what pitfalls to watch out for in the data.
• Working with new race/ethnicity categories: Discusses how to use HMDA data to analyze lending variations by race and ethnicity, as well as the recent changes in race/ethnicity reporting requirements and how to best analyze the data.
• And more here: https://www.ire.org/resource-center/tipsheets/?q=hmda

WHAT'S IN IT?

Each loan record contains demographic information about loan applicants, including:

• Race
• Gender
• Income
• Purpose of the loan (i.e. home purchase or improvement)
• Whether the buyer intends to live in the home
• The type of loan (i.e. conventional, FHA insured, etc.)
• A field called "spread" shows the difference between Treasury security interest rate and the loans interest rate (if the rate is higher than the Treasury rate)
• The outcome of the loan application (i.e. approved or declined).

Check out the documentation -- Readme.txt -- and a sample of the data -- HMDA.xls.

WHAT FORMAT?

​The most recent year of ​HMDA data​ comes​ in .CSV format, easily imported into database managers; the files are too big for Excel. If you'd like something different, contact us and we'll do our best to help you out.  Email datalib@ire.org or call (573) 884-7711.

​Older data from 1992 - 2013 is also available for purchase; contact the data library. ​State slices are​ also​ available. 

To ​purchase and download​ the full data online, visit the online store at https://www.ire.org/nicar/database-library/databases/hmda/. You can also contact the library directly by emailing datalib@ire.org or calling (573) 884-7711.

Contact us if you have any questions about the data, or to tell us how you've used HMDA in your reporting.