The 2009 HMDA Data : The Mortgage Market During a Time of Low Interest Rates and Economic Distress

The data that mortgage lending institutions reported for 2009 under the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act of 1975 (HMDA) reflect the ongoing difficulties in the housing and mortgage markets. This article presents a number of key findings from a review of the 2009 HMDA data. In particular, it documents the wave of refinancing but discusses factors that may have muted such opportunities, explores patterns of lending across groups and areas with high rates of foreclosure, highlights the federal government's greatly expanded role in the mortgage market, and examines how the interest rate environment and changes to the rules that govern the designation of loans as higher priced under HMDA affected the incidence of reported higher-priced lending in 2009 relative to earlier years