The Federal Financial Institutions Examination Counsel (FFIEC) recently announced the release of 2018 Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA) data. Calendar year 2018 is the first year that financial institutions reported mortgage loan information based on the significantly expanded HMDA data categories.

In addition to the data, two articles were released. One article addresses the new and revised data points in the 2018 HMDA data, and provides initial observations about the nation’s mortgage market in 2018 based on the new or revised data points. The other article is the second in an annual series of CFPB data point articles describing mortgage market activity over time based on data reported under HMDA. The article summarizes the historical data points in the 2018 HMDA data, as well as recent trends in mortgage and housing markets.

As previously reported, the CFPB extended to October 15, 2019 the comment period for a proposal to modify the HMDA reporting thresholds for closed-end loans and open-end lines of credit, based on comments from stakeholders that they would like to provide comments on the proposal after reviewing the 2018 HMDA data. In agreeing to extend the comment deadline, the CFPB stated it “believes that it would be useful to have public comment on the 2018 HMDA Data in considering where to set the permanent coverage thresholds for closed-end mortgage loans and open-end lines of credit. For example, the new data may shed light on the number of institutions and percentage of market activity covered at different potential coverage thresholds and the value of the data that would not be reported if the thresholds were increased.”