May 19 -- The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) invites comments to OMB by June 21, 2022 concerning the proposed 2022 American Survey of Mortgage Borrowers (ASMB).
The American Survey of Mortgage Borrowers (ASMB) is a component of the “National Mortgage Database” (NMDB®) Program, which is a joint effort of FHFA and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) (jointly, “the agencies”). The NMDB Program is designed to satisfy the Congressionally-mandated requirements of section 1324(c) of the Federal Housing Enterprises Financial Safety and Soundness Act.
Section 1324(c) requires that FHFA conduct a monthly survey to collect data on the characteristics of individual prime and subprime mortgages, and on the borrowers and properties associated with those mortgages, in order to enable it to prepare a detailed annual report on the mortgage market activities of the Federal National Mortgage Association (Fannie Mae) and the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation (Freddie Mac) for review by the appropriate Congressional oversight committees. Section 1324(c) also authorizes and requires FHFA to compile a database of otherwise unavailable residential mortgage market information and to make that information available to the public in a timely fashion.
As a means of fulfilling those and other statutory requirements, as well as to support policymaking and research regarding the residential mortgage markets, FHFA and CFPB jointly established the NMDB Program in 2012. The Program is designed to provide comprehensive information about the U.S. mortgage market and has three primary components: (1) The NMDB; (2) the quarterly National Survey of Mortgage Originations (NSMO); and (3) the ASMB.
The NMDB is a de-identified loan-level database of closed-end first-lien residential mortgage loans that is representative of the market as a whole, contains detailed loan-level information on the terms and performance of the mortgages and the characteristics of the associated borrowers and properties, is continually updated, has an historical component dating back to 1998, and provides a sampling frame for surveys to collect additional information. The core data in the NMDB are drawn from a random 1-in-20 sample of all closed-end first-lien mortgages outstanding at any time between January 1998 and the present in the files of Experian, one of the three national credit repositories, with a random sample of mortgages newly reported to Experian added each quarter.
The NMDB draws additional information on mortgages in the NMDB datasets from other existing sources, including Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA) data that are maintained by the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council (FFIEC), property valuation models, and administrative data files maintained by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and by federal agencies. FHFA also obtains data from the two surveys conducted as part of the program—the NSMO and the ASMB.
The NSMO is a quarterly survey that provides critical and timely information on newly-originated mortgages and associated borrowers that are not available from other sources, including: The range of nontraditional and subprime mortgage products being offered, the methods by which these mortgages are being marketed, and the characteristics of borrowers for these types of loans.
While the NSMO provides information on newly-originated mortgages, the ASMB focuses on borrowers' experience with maintaining their existing mortgages. This includes their experience maintaining mortgages under financial stress, their experience in soliciting financial assistance, their success in accessing federally sponsored programs designed to assist them, and, where applicable, any challenges they may have had in terminating a mortgage loan. The ASMB is designed to collect information necessary to allow empirical analysis of two questions of vital importance to residential mortgage market policymakers and stakeholders: (1) What factors explain or predict which borrowers will become delinquent on their mortgages; and (2) once a borrower becomes delinquent, what factors explain or predict whether the borrower will (a) become current on the loan, (b) decide they cannot afford the mortgage and sell the property or modify the mortgage, or (c) remain delinquent and enter into foreclosure.
From 2016 through 2018, the ASMB questionnaire was sent once annually to a stratified random sample of 10,000 borrowers with mortgages in the NMDB. FHFA did not undertake the ASMB during 2019, but sent the survey again in the fall of 2020 with a specific focus on the experiences of borrowers during the COVID-19 pandemic using a stratified random sample of 10,000 borrowers. The 2020 survey was substantially similar to the 2018 survey, except it included a number of questions specifically relating to the COVID-19 pandemic and its effects. In 2020, the ASMB had a 21 percent overall response rate, which yielded 2,100 survey responses. The 2022 survey is similar to the 2020 survey in its focus on how the pandemic impacted borrowers and extends the focus to the experiences of those who used forbearance.
Seven completely new questions have been added regarding expanded mortgage payment forbearance options and borrowers' overall financial health. Additionally, four questions were added which were not in the 2020 ASMB, but were in either the 2018 ASMB or the current NSMO questionnaire. The remaining questions existed in the 2020 questionnaire, although some have been revised to address issues leaving forbearance rather than issues entering it. Because of the elimination of several questions, as well as the combination of some other questions, the total number of questions has decreased from 92 on the 2020 survey questionnaire to 86 on the 2022 questionnaire.
Each of the 86 questions on the 2022 ASMB survey questionnaire is designed to elicit one or more of five different categories of information that are not available in the administrative data and that are needed either to properly analyze the issues described above or information is needed to validate the survey responses. These categories are: (1) Information needed to validate that the survey reached the correct borrower and that the borrower is providing answers about the correct loan; (2) information about the mortgage loan that does not exist in sufficient detail in the administrative data; (3) information about the borrower's economic circumstances that does not exist, or exists in insufficient detail, in the administrative data; (4) information about the borrower's attitudes regarding their mortgage, property, interactions with lenders and servicers, and life circumstances; and (5) information needed to determine the ultimate outcome of the borrower's forbearance or delinquency and the interim steps that led to that outcome.
FHFA views the NMDB Program as a whole, including the ASMB, as the monthly “survey” required by section 1324(c) of the Safety and Soundness Act. Core inputs to the NMDB, such as a regular refresh of the credit repository data, occur monthly, though the actual surveys conducted under the NMDB Program do not. The information collected through the ASMB is used, in combination with information obtained from existing sources in the NMDB, to assist FHFA in understanding how the performance of existing mortgages is influencing the residential mortgage market, what borrower groups are discussing with their servicers when they are under financial stress, and consumers' opinions of federally-sponsored programs designed to assist them. This important, but otherwise unavailable, information assists FHFA in the supervision of its regulated entities (Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and the Federal Home Loan Banks) and in the development and implementation of appropriate and effective policies and programs. The information may also be used for research and analysis by CFPB and other federal agencies that have regulatory and supervisory responsibilities and mandates related to mortgage markets and to provide a resource for research and analysis by academics and other interested parties outside of the government.
As discussed above, the agencies have added to the 2022 ASMB survey questionnaire several questions relating to the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on home mortgage borrowers. The CARES Act of 2020 allowed a forbearance for mortgage borrowers impacted by the pandemic so they could pause or delay their mortgage payments. FHFA and CFPB are actively engaged in monitoring the outcomes of these borrowers and the effects of this policy on the residential mortgage market. As borrowers exit their forbearance periods, it is critical for both agencies to have timely access to this information to assist in evidenced-based policymaking in these areas.
FHFA is also seeking OMB approval to continue to conduct cognitive pre-testing of the survey materials. The Agency uses information collected through that process to assist in drafting and modifying the survey questions and instructions, as well as the related communications, to read in the way that will be most readily understood by the survey respondents and that will be most likely to elicit usable responses. Such information is also used to help the Agency decide on how best to organize and format the survey questionnaires.
This information collection comprises two components: (1) The ASMB survey; and (2) the pre-testing of the survey questionnaire and related materials through the use of cognitive testing. FHFA conducted the survey annually from 2016 through 2018, but did not conduct the survey in 2019 nor 2021. FHFA assumes that it will conduct the survey once annually over the next three years and that it will conduct two rounds of pre-testing on each year of survey materials.
ASMB webpage (CFPB):
https://www.consumerfinance.gov/data-research/american-survey-mortgage-borrowers/
ASMB submission to OMB:
https://www.reginfo.gov/public/do/PRAViewICR?ref_nbr=202205-2590-002 Click IC List for data collection instruments, View Supporting Statement for technical documentation. Submit comments through this site.
FRN:
https://www.federalregister.gov/d/2022-10772
For AEA members wishing to submit comments to OMB, the AEA Committee on Economic Statistics offers "A Primer on How to Respond to Calls for Comment on Federal Data Collections" at
https://www.aeaweb.org/content/file?id=5806