The Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council today released the 2021 Home Mortgage Disclosure Act data on mortgage lending transactions at 4,338 financial institutions. The data encompasses 23.3 million mortgage applications. Of these, 21.1 million were closed-end loans and 1.8 million were open-end loans such as home equity lines of credit. There were also 350,000 records that did not indicate loan type.
The total number of originated closed-end loans increased by about 528,000 between 2020 and 2021. Refinance originations decreased by 1.4% from 8.5 million, and home purchase lending increased by 9.2% from 4.8 million. The share of mortgages originated by nonbanks continues to climb, accounting for 63.9% of home-purchase loans, up from 60.7% in 2020.
Closed-end, first-lien loans to Black borrowers rose from 7.3% in 2020 to 7.9% in 2021. Loans to Hispanic-White borrowers increased slightly from 9.1% to 9.2%, and those made to Asian borrowers increased from 5.5% to 7.1%. Denial rates have edged down slightly. In 2021, Black and Hispanic-White applicants experienced denial rates of 15.7% and 9.8%, respectively, compared to 17.2% and 11.2% in 2020. Denial rates for Asian and non-Hispanic-White applicants were 7.5% and 5.6%, respectively, compared with 9.1% and 6.1% in 2020.
The Federal Housing Administration-insured share of loans decreased slightly from 19.4% in 2020 to 17.2% in 2021. The overall government-backed share of loans, including FHA, VA, Rural Housing Service and Farm Service Agency loans, was 29.3% in 2021, down from 32.8% in 2020.The FHA-insured share of closed-end refinance mortgages increased to 6.9% in 2021 from 6.2% in 2020, while the VA-guaranteed share of such refinance loans decreased from 11.9% in 2020 to 10.2% in 2021.
