The Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council (FFIEC) has made available the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA) Modified Loan Application Register (LAR) data for 2024, providing the public with loan-level information submitted by approximately 4,898 HMDA filers. This data has been altered to protect consumer privacy as per federal regulation. A treasure trove of mortgage lending metrics, now at one's fingertips, can be found on the FFIEC's HMDA Platform, enabling users to dissect and understand lending patterns across financial institutions.
Previously, accessing LAR data required individual requests to financial institutions. Still, moving towards transparency and ease of access, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's 2015 HMDA rule mandated the online availability of modified LAR files for each HMDA filer. What's more, the data from all institutions has been combined into a single, downloadable file, making research and comparison not only possible but also practical. According to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, "The published data contain loan-level information filed by financial institutions and modified to protect consumer privacy."
For those new to navigating these waters, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has published a 'Beginner's Guide to Accessing and Using HMDA Data,' helping to demystify the labyrinth of numbers and technical jargon; this guide provides background on HMDA itself along with essential tech tips to help users understand and conduct their analysis with the data. Interested parties can find the 2024 HMDA Loan Application Register data by visiting the FFIEC HMDA Platform directly.
