Details Borrower’s Experiences Obtaining a Mortgage
The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) today released additional loan-level data for public use collected through the National Survey of Mortgage Originations (NSMO). The data provide insights into borrowers’ experiences in getting a residential mortgage.
The NSMO is a component of the National Mortgage Database (NMDB®), the first comprehensive repository of detailed mortgage loan information designed to support policymaking and research efforts and to help regulators better understand emerging mortgage and housing market trends. The NMDB was launched by FHFA and the CFPB in 2012.
In each quarter since 2014, FHFA and the CFPB sent surveys to borrowers who had recently obtained mortgages to gather feedback on their experiences during the process of getting a mortgage, their perception of the mortgage market, and their future expectations. FHFA and the CFPB released the first public NSMO dataset on November 8, 2018. The second round of data adds an additional year of new mortgages (2017) and additional information through the third quarter of 2019.
“The NSMO data are helpful for understanding challenges and successes experienced by consumers while obtaining a mortgage,” said FHFA Deputy Director Lynn Fisher. “The data from the survey help FHFA, CFPB and other federal agencies identify ways to improve lending practices and mortgage processes for future borrowers.”
“The National Survey of Mortgage Originations data provides a rich source of information on the current mortgage experience of borrowers. By releasing this survey data to the public, CFPB and FHFA hope to provide a valuable tool to policymakers, community groups and researchers,” said CFPB Policy Associate Director Tom Pahl.
The NMDB is designed to fulfill the requirements of the Housing and Economic Recovery Act (HERA) and the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (Dodd-Frank Act). HERA mandated that FHFA conduct a monthly mortgage survey of all residential mortgages, including those not eligible for purchase by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The Dodd-Frank Act mandated that the CFPB monitor the primary mortgage market, in part through the use of the survey data.
NSMO Public Use File Link