New information reported under HMDA and its application in fair lending enforcement

In 2002 the Federal Reserve Board amended its Regulation C, which implements the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act of 1975, to expand the types of information that lenders covered by the law must disclose to the public about their home-lending activities. The amendments are intended to improve the quality, consistency, and utility of the reported data and to keep the regulation in step with recent developments in home-loan markets. Data reported for 2004 are the first to reflect the changes in the reporting rules. ; This article presents a first look at these greatly expanded data and considers some of their implications for the continuing concerns about fair lending. The analysis highlights some key relationships revealed in an initial review of the types of data that are new for 2004. Some parts of the analysis focus on nationwide statistics, and others examine patterns across groups of lenders, loan products, and various groupings of applicants, borrowers, and neighborhoods. The authors explore, in particular and in some depth, the strengths and limitations of the information on loan pricing. They also describe how the new data are being used to enhance fair lending enforcement activities.Regulation C: Home Mortgage Disclosure ; Home Mortgage Disclosure Act

Cross-lender variation in home mortgage lending

A lender-specific analysis of differences in minority and low-income mortgage loan originations using new applicant-level data gathered under the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act of 1975.Home Mortgage Disclosure Act ; Mortgages ; Discrimination in mortgage loans

Home mortgage lending by the numbers

A look at some of the issues associated with reports that minority applicants for home mortgage loans are far more likely than whites to be denied credit. The authors raise the concern that simple comparisons of denial rates are not sufficient for grasping the complexities surrounding community-oriented lending.Mortgages ; Community Reinvestment Act of 1977 ; Home Mortgage Disclosure Act

Lender consistency in housing credit markets

An examination of how and why individual financial institutions vary in their propensity to attract and approve mortgage applications from minorities, using Home Mortgage Disclosure Act data.Mortgages ; Housing - Finance ; Home Mortgage Disclosure Act

Posted rates as signals in mortgage lending markets

A discussion of how mortgage lenders might use posted lending terms to signal both their eagerness to take new loan applications and their lending standards.Mortgages ; Interest rates

Neighborhood information and home mortgage lending.

An examination of how information about a neighborhood affects the level of lending activity in it--specifically, whether lenders deny mortgage applications at higher rates in neighborhoods where they have little experience in evaluating applications and/or where the lending community in general lacks such experience.Mortgages ; Discrimination in mortgage loans

Accounting for racial differences in housing credit markets

A documentation of racial and neighborhood differences in home mortgage denial rates using data collected under the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act, exploring the extent to which objective lending criteria are responsible for observed differences. The authors find persistent variations in denial rates between white and minority applicants, but emphasize that the HMDA data do not contain enough relevant information to draw any firm conclusions regarding causation.Discrimination in mortgage loans ; Mortgages ; Home Mortgage Disclosure Act ; Community Reinvestment Act of 1977

Aerosol chemical composition in Asian continental outflow during the TRACE-P campaign: Comparison with PEM-West B

Aerosol associated soluble ions and the radionuclide tracers 7Be and 210Pb were quantified in 414 filter samples collected in spring 2001 from the DC-8 during the Transport and Chemical Evolution over the Pacific (TRACE-P) campaign. Binning the data into near Asia (flights from Hong Kong and Japan) and remote Pacific (all other flights) revealed large enhancements of NO3−, SO4=, C2O4=, NH4+, K+, Mg2+, and Ca2+ near Asia. The boundary layer and lower troposphere were most strongly influenced by continental outflow, and the largest enhancements were seen in Ca2+ (a dust tracer) and NO3− (reflecting uptake of HNO3 onto the dust). Comparing the TRACE P near Asia bin with earlier results from the same region during PEM-West B (in 1994) shows at least twofold enhancements during TRACE P in most of the ions listed above. Calcium and NO3− were most enhanced in this comparison as well (more than sevenfold higher in the boundary layer and threefold higher in the lower troposphere). Independent estimation of Asian emissions of gaseous precursors of the aerosol-associated ions suggest only small changes between the two missions, and precipitation fields do not suggest any significant difference in the efficiency of the primary sink, precipitation scavenging. It thus appears that with the possible exception of dust, the enhancements of aerosol-associated species during TRACE P cannot be explained by stronger sources or weaker sinks. We argue that the enhancements largely reflect the fact that TRACE P focused on characterizing Asian outflow, and thus the DC-8 was more frequently flown into regions that were influenced by well-organized flow off the continent