Home-Mortgage Lending Trends in New England in 2010

Abstract

This brief analysis of home-mortgage lending trends in New England provides information on lending activity from 2006 to 2010. The report includes data on originations, denial rates, and percent of high-priced loans by loan purpose (refinance and home-purchase) and type of loan (conventional and non-conventional loans). The paper highlights differences by state, income, and race/ethnicity. Mortgage information in New England shows that home-purchase originations in the region have continued to decline over the past four years, dropping 44 percent from 2006 to 2010. Home-purchase loans plummeted at a much higher rate among black and Latino borrowers than among white and Asian borrowers. All the New England states, except Rhode Island, showed a higher number of refinance originations in 2010 than in 2006, despite a year-over-year drop in 2010.

Interestingly, low- and moderate-income (LMI) borrowers experienced a less dramatic fall in home-purchase originations than did non-LMI borrowers from 2006 to 2010. However, LMI census tracts were more severely affected than non-LMI census tracts. The report also shows that denial rates in New England declined slightly in 2010, reaching the lowest level in the past five years. In 2010, loans insured by the Federal Housing Administration accounted for a third of home-purchase originations in the region and for two-thirds of home-purchase loans to blacks and Latinos.