Polygon Research Blog

What is HMDA - Know Your Customer

HMDA Impact Wednesdays
HMDA, the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act, is disclosure legislation - implemented via Regulation C - aimed at ensuring fair and effective mortgage lending in the US.

2022 is the fourth year the CFPB will be releasing an expanded set of HMDA data points on applicant demographics. In combination with loan features, geo location, property type, and lender information, this data allows you to quickly understand the buying patterns, for example, of various age groups and income levels.

What type of applicant demographics are in the HMDA data?


HMDA discloses the age, ethnicity, income, race, and sex of mortgage applicants as we detail below.

Age

The age of applicant is disclosed in two ways - as a threshold of 62, and as ranges, as shown below.

Fig. 1: Age of Applicant as a Threshold
Source: Polygon Research, HMDAvision


Fig. 2: Age of Applicant as Ranges
Source: Polygon Research, HMDAvision

Ethnicity


The Hispanic or Latino ethnicity of applicants can also be analyzed in combination with the other demographics dimensions.

Fig. 3: Ethnicity of Applicant
Source: Polygon Research, HMDAvision

Income

Income of applicant is disclosed as a number, rounded to the nearest thousand. In HMDAvision, we allow for analysis of average, median, or range. We also compare the applicant income to the tract median family tract to derive categorization of applicant income by income group (low, moderate (LMI), middle and upper).

Fig. 4: Income Group of Applicants
Source: Polygon Research, HMDAvision

Race

The race of applicants is another one of the demographics points that are disclosed under Regulation C. We can analyze this data together with every other dimension in the data set to understand, for example, loan channel use, loan type use, property and geo location, and measures of brand awareness.

Fig. 5: Race of Applicants
Source: Polygon Research, HMDAvision

Sex
The sex of applicant is disclosed as shown below. Similar to the other dimensions, it can be analyzed with any dimension in order to understand choices and use of channel, loan, location, lender, and more.

Fig. 6: Sex of Applicant
Source: Polygon Research, HMDAvision

The insights you derive from this analysis may inform targeted marketing and sales strategies. For example, putting it together, you can zero in on in a specific demographic market as shown in the example below.

Fig. 7: Targeted market analysis for purchase lending to Non-Hispanic, American Indian, Female Applicants with annual income between $50,000 and $150,000
Source: Polygon Research, HMDAvision

We would love to hear from you what use cases you have and how you are leveraging the demographics data available in HMDA. Get 15-minites on the calendar with us and let's talk.