What is HMDA data?
HMDA stands for the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act, a 1975 US federal law that requires most mortgage lenders to publicly report the home-loan applications they receive and the loans they originate. The data is compiled by the FFIEC and published free by the CFPB in the HMDA Data Browser. It is the most comprehensive public record of US mortgage lending — covering tens of millions of applications a year — and is in the public domain. Every figure on RateLedger comes from it (the 2023 reporting year).
Source: HMDA Data Browser (FFIEC / CFPB). Data as of June 2026.
What's in the data
Each row in HMDA is one application or loan. The fields RateLedger uses to build its state pages are:
| Field | What it captures | Codes we use |
|---|---|---|
| Action taken | What happened to the application | 1 originated · 3 denied (also 2/4/5) |
| Loan purpose | Why the loan was sought | 1 home purchase · 31/32 refinance |
| Loan type | The program backing the loan | 1 conventional · 2 FHA · 3 VA · 4 USDA/RHS |
| State | Property location | Two-letter state code |
What we calculate from it
HMDA publishes raw counts, not rates. RateLedger derives a few transparent figures over those counts. The denial rate is denied applications divided by the sum of originated and denied (so withdrawn and incomplete files are excluded). The loan-type shares are each type's originations as a percent of all typed originations. Nationally in 2023 that works out to about 4,520,188 originations, a 19.6% denial rate, and a loan mix of 79.6% conventional, 13.2% FHA and 6.6% VA. The exact formulas are on the methodology page.
What HMDA can't tell you
HMDA is powerful but limited. It does not include credit scores or the lender's full underwriting rationale, so a high denial rate in a state cannot, by itself, be read as discrimination or unusually strict lenders — it may simply reflect who applies and for what. The data is also reported once a year with a lag, so the latest complete year trails the present. Treat HMDA as a transparency record of what happened, and verify anything important at the source.
Frequently asked questions
What is HMDA?
The Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA) is a 1975 US federal law that requires most mortgage lenders to publicly report data on the home-loan applications they receive and the loans they make. The data is collected by the FFIEC and published by the CFPB through the free HMDA Data Browser.
What does HMDA data include?
For each application, HMDA records the action taken (originated, approved-not-accepted, denied, withdrawn, incomplete), the loan purpose (purchase, refinance, home improvement), loan type (conventional, FHA, VA, USDA), loan amount, property location, and applicant demographics. It does not include credit scores or the lender's full underwriting decision.
What can't HMDA data tell you?
HMDA shows what happened, not always why. It excludes credit scores, full debt-to-income detail and individual underwriting reasons, so a high denial rate cannot be read as proof of discrimination or strict lenders on its own. It is also reported annually with a lag, so the latest full year is usually a year or two behind.
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Last updated: 2026-06-20