Congress passed the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA) in 1975 to ensure lenders observe fair lending practices and, particularly, to shed light on the availability of credit in urban neighborhoods. The act requires lending institutions including credit unions, banks, mortgage finance firms, savings associations, and other lenders to report HMDA data if the institution:
- Has greater than $46 million in assets.
- Has a branch or home office in a metropolitan statistical area.
- Originated at least 25 closed-end mortgage loans or at least 500 open-end lines of credit in the prior two calendar years.
Today, the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council (FFIEC) publishes HMDA data on an annual basis. The data set for all loans originated in the calendar year 2019 serves as the basis for this analysis. According to the FFIEC, 5,508 institutions met the criteria required to report originations in 2019. Collectively, the industry lent $2.7 trillion via 9.3 million mortgages. As a result, total loan amounts funded grew 33.5% year-over-year.
Continue reading to see a detailed breakdown of credit union mortgage lending in 2019.