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REAL ESTATE RESEARCH

ABOUT

February 25, 2015

REAL ESTATE RESEARCH
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Real Estate Research provided
analysis of topical research and
current issues in the fields of housing
and real estate economics. Authors
for the blog included the Atlanta Fed's
Jessica Dill, Kristopher Gerardi, Carl
Hudson, and analysts, as well as the

Has the Pendulum Swung Back to Neutral? Looking at
Credit Availability

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RECENT POSTS

Statements since March 2014 from the Federal Open Market Committee,
including the last one, indicate that the recovery in the housing sector remains
slow. Last year, when the Atlanta Fed looked at measures of housing affordability

Assessing the Size and Spread of
Vulnerable Renter Households in

(see, for example, these posts from the Atlanta Fed blogs macroblog,
SouthPoint, and Real Estate Research ), we concluded that in light of the still

the Southeast
What's Being Done to Help Renters

In December 2020, content from Real
Estate Research became part of

relatively high readings of affordability measures, it was likely that some other
factor was the main culprit in dampening the housing recovery. Access to credit

during the Pandemic?
An Update on Forbearance Trends

Policy Hub. Future articles will be
released in Policy Hub: Macroblog.

is not included in affordability measures, so in this post, we turn our attention to
the question of whether financing might be a headwind to a more robust housing

Examining the Effects of COVID-19
on the Southeast Housing Market

recovery.

Southeast Housing Market and
COVID-19

The availability of credit is an important driver of housing market activity. During
the downturn, our contacts often mentioned that the pendulum had swung too far

Update on Lot Availability and
Construction Lending

in the direction of looseness when economic times were good. And during the
recovery, they said the pendulum had swung too far in the direction of tightness.

Tax Reform's Effect on Low-Income
Housing

In this post, we'll discuss several indicators of credit availability and answer the
question, where does the credit availability pendulum hang now?

Housing Headwinds
Where Is the Housing Sector

First, let's look at the Atlanta Fed's monthly poll* of residential brokers and home

Headed?
Did Harvey Influence the Housing

Boston Fed's Christopher Foote and
Paul Willen.

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Market?

builders. Beginning with the late 2012 poll, we occasionally included a special
question for our panel of real estate business contacts about how available they

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perceived credit to be. When the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's
(CFPB) Qualified Mortgage (QM) rule went into effect in January 2014, we began

Affordable housing goals

asking the credit availability question every month to pick up on subtle changes
in perceptions. (The dots on the blue line in chart 1 show the frequency of the

Credit conditions
Expansion of mortgage credit

question.)

Federal Housing Authority
Financial crisis

Results from the latest poll suggest that mortgage credit availability is improving.
A growing share of business contacts (three-fourths of residential brokers and

Foreclosure contagion
Foreclosure laws

two-thirds of home builders) reported that the amount of available mortgage
finance was sufficient to meet demand. To track the direction of the trend over

Governmentsponsored enterprises
GSE

time, we charted the results in the form of a diffusion index (see the blue line in
chart1). A diffusion index value greater than zero signifies that the majority of

Homebuyer tax credit
Homeownership

builders and agents reported that there is enough available credit to meet
demand, while a value less than zero signifies that the majority do not believe

House price indexes
Household formations

available credit is sufficient to meet demand. The chart clearly shows that many
builders and agents believe there is enough available credit.

Housing boom
Housing crisis

Second, let's consider the Mortgage Credit Availability Index (MCAI) that the

Housing demand
Housing prices

Mortgage Bankers Association produces on a monthly basis (the green line in
chart 1). The MCAI is an index constructed using underwriting criteria from more

Income segregation
Individual Development Account

than 95 lenders and investors. Even though the diffusion index is a qualitative
measure and the MCAI is a quantitative measure, the series are highly

Loan modifications
Monetary policy

correlated (ρ=0.73), and both suggest that credit availability has been slowly but
steadily improving since early 2013.

Mortgage crisis
Mortgage default
Mortgage interest tax deduction
Mortgage supply
Multifamily housing
Negative equity
Positive demand shock
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Rental homes
Securitization
Subprime MBS
Subprime mortgages
Supply elasticity
Uncategorized
Upward mobility
Urban growth

Third is the Federal Reserve Board's Senior Loan Officer Opinion Survey on
Bank Lending Practices (SLOOS), which polls large domestic and foreign banks
every quarter about demand for and the availability of credit. In the SLOOS,
banks are asked to indicate whether credit standards for approving mortgage
loan applications have tightened, remained unchanged, or eased over the past
three months. The latest results, shown in chart 2, reflect recently introduced
categories that align with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's qualified
mortgage rule. Like the previous two series, seen in chart 1, the SLOOS also
appears to suggest that lending standards have eased. Note that the net
tightening response for prime lending is loosening by a similar or greater
magnitude as it did some years during the boom—2006, for example.

So has the credit availability pendulum returned to its neutral resting position?
It's hard to say for certain, but there is clearly evidence to suggest that it is at
least slowly moving in that direction.
*The monthly poll of brokers and builders was conducted January 12–21, 2015,
and reflects conditions in December 2014. Fifty-seven business contacts around
the Southeast participated: 23 homebuilders and 34 residential brokers. To
explore the latest results in more detail, visit the Construction and Real Estate
Survey web page.
By Jessica Dill, senior economic research analyst in the Atlanta Fed's research
department
January 14, 2015 in Financial crisis, Housing crisis, Mortgage crisis,
Mortgage default | Permalink