PROJECTQ1 2016

Q1 2016

Updated July 18, 2016

The Housing Finance Policy Center’s latest credit availability index (HCAI) shows that mortgage credit availability declined slightly again from 5.6 to 5.4 in the first quarter of 2016 (Q1 2016) after last quarter’s small uptick.

The HCAI measures the percentage of home purchase loans that are likely to default—that is, go unpaid for more than 90 days past their due date. The HCAI looks at loans that have already been made. A lower HCAI indicates that lenders are unwilling to tolerate defaults and are imposing tighter lending standards, making it harder to get a loan. A higher HCAI indicates that lenders are willing to tolerate defaults and are taking more risks, making it easier to get a loan.

Mortgage credit availability in the government-sponsored enterprises (GSE) channel—Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac—has been at the highest level over the past four quarters since its low in 2010. Both the government channel (FVR) and portfolio and private-label securities channel continued to stay close to or at the record low on the amount of default risk taken by the two markets. FVR channel includes the Federal Housing Administration, the Department of Veterans Affairs, and the Department of Agriculture Rural Development program.

Significant space remains to safely expand the credit box. If the current default risk was doubled across all channels, risk would still be well within the pre-crisis standard of 12.5 percent from 2001 to 2003 for the whole mortgage market.

We will publish an updated HCAI for Q2 2016 in October 2016.

 

HCAI by Channels

GSE Loans

The GSE market has expanded the credit box for borrowers more effectively than the FVR government channel has in recent months. The downward trend of credit availability in the GSE channel was reversed in Q2 2011. From Q2 2011 to Q1 2016, the total risk taken by the GSE channel increased 56 percent, from 1.4 percent to 2.1 percent.

Government Loans

The total default risk the government loan channel is willing to take bottomed out at 9.6 percent in Q3 2013. It climbed to 10.5 percent in Q4 2014 but dropped slightly to 9.6 in Q3 2015. Since then it started to expand again, and stood at 10 percent in Q1 2016. The 10 percent credit risk for the government channel is just under half of the pre-bubble level.

Portfolio and Private-Label Securities Loans

The portfolio and private-label securities (PP) channel took much higher product risk than the FVR and GSE channels during the bubble. After the crisis, the channel’s product and borrower risks dropped sharply. They have stabilized since 2013, with product risk fluctuating around 0.6 percent and borrower risk around 2.0 percent from 2013 to 2014. However, the PP channel took even less product risk (only 0.2 percent) in Q1 2016. The total default risk taken by this market grew slightly to 2.3 percent, which was still a record low level.

 

Policy Centers Housing Finance Policy Center