Mortgage credit availability decreased in June according to the Mortgage Credit Availability Index (MCAI), a report from the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) which analyzes data from Ellie Mae’s AllRegs® Market Clarity® business information tool.
The MCAI decreased 1.3 percent to 119.8 in June. A decline in the MCAI indicates that lending standards are tightening, while increases in the index are indicative of loosening credit. The index was benchmarked to 100 in March 2012. Of the four component indices, the Conventional MCAI saw the greatest tightening (down 2.4 percent) over the month followed by the Conforming MCAI (down 1.8 percent), the Jumbo MCAI (down 0.9 percent), and the Government MCAI (down 0.3 percent).
“Credit availability decreased over the month driven primarily by a decrease in availability of conventional conforming loan offerings,” says Lynn Fisher, MBA’s vice president of Research and Economics. “In particular, a number of investors discontinued their conventional high balance seven-year adjustable rate loan programs (agency jumbo ARM) while leaving their five-year and 10-year ARM programs unchanged.”
For more information, visit www.mba.org.
