The Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA) Mortgage Credit Availability Index (MCAI) showed little change in mortgage credit availability in February. The indices for conforming loans and government loans reflected upticks by 1% and 0.6%, respectively, indicating a loosening of credit for these loan types. Alternately, data for conventional and jumbo loans showed a minor tightening of credit with both indices dipping less than 1%.
Lynn Fisher, MBA’s Vice President of Research and Economics, stated, “Slight declines in conventional programs aimed at low-to-moderate income borrowers were offset by increasing availability of government-backed programs. More than half of the investors in our credit availability data set are now offering some form of a conventional low down payment loan program which is targeted at lower income borrowers and first time home buyers and generally allows a down payment as low as 3 percent.” Read the MBA’s full article at http://bit.ly/1R7KejY.