PlainLender

Methodology & Data Sources

Primary Data Source

All data on PlainLender comes from the CFPB Snapshot National Loan-Level Dataset published by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau under the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA). This is the 2024 dataset, covering mortgage applications filed with 4,908 reporting institutions across the United States, distributed via the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council (FFIEC).

HMDA requires most mortgage lenders to disclose detailed information about their lending activity, including loan applications, originations, denials, and applicant characteristics. The CFPB publishes this data annually to support fair lending oversight and public transparency.

Processing Pipeline

We download the CFPB's Snapshot National Loan-Level Dataset, over 11 million individual application records, and aggregate them into institution-level, state-level, county-level, and metro-area statistics. The pipeline:

  • Reads each individual loan record and groups by reporting institution (LEI code)
  • Computes origination rates, denial rates, and median loan amounts per institution
  • Aggregates geographic distribution of loans by state, county, and MSA
  • Calculates demographic lending patterns using CFPB's derived race and ethnicity categories
  • Generates state, county, and metro-level summaries with market-wide statistics

No individual loan records or personally identifiable information is stored or displayed on this site.

Demographic Data

Race and ethnicity are reported separately following Census Bureau standards, Hispanic/Latino is an ethnicity category, shown separately from race categories. All demographic data reflects self-reported information from mortgage applicants as recorded by lenders in HMDA submissions.

Metrics Explained

  • Origination rate: Share of completed applications that resulted in a loan being made.
  • Denial rate: Share of completed applications that were denied by the lender.
  • Median loan amount: Midpoint of all originated loan amounts reported by the institution.

Reading a Denial Rate

A county- or lender-level denial rate reflects the mix of applicants who actually applied there - credit profiles, loan-to-value, debt-to-income, property type, and rural-versus-urban composition all move the number. A higher denial rate does not automatically mean "stricter lenders"; it often reflects a local applicant pool with thinner files or higher leverage. Compare denial rates alongside loan-to-income ratio and applicant volume rather than in isolation.

Data Vintage and Update Frequency

PlainLender uses the 2024 HMDA Snapshot National Loan-Level Dataset published by the CFPB. The CFPB releases HMDA data annually, typically in the spring following the reporting year. The Snapshot dataset represents a point-in-time extract of all reported applications for that calendar year. PlainLender updates its database when the CFPB publishes new annual HMDA snapshot files. Because HMDA reporting covers all application activity within a calendar year, each annual release provides a complete picture of lending activity for that 12-month period.

Accuracy Commitment

PlainLender reproduces CFPB HMDA data exactly as reported by lending institutions. Origination rates, denial rates, loan amounts, and demographic breakdowns are calculated directly from the underlying loan-level records without editorial modification. No individual loan records or personally identifiable information is stored or displayed on this site. When data for a specific lender, geography, or demographic group has insufficient volume for reliable statistics, this is displayed transparently. All aggregations use the CFPB's published methodologies for rate calculation and demographic categorization.

Limitations

  • Data covers 2024 applications only. Lending patterns, interest rates, and market conditions change year to year, and the 2024 data may not reflect current lending behavior.
  • HMDA covers most but not all mortgage lenders, very small institutions below CFPB reporting thresholds (generally those making fewer than 25 closed-end mortgage loans per year) are excluded from the dataset.
  • Origination and denial rates include only completed applications where a final action was taken. Withdrawn applications and files closed for incompleteness are excluded from rate calculations.
  • Demographic lending patterns reflect self-reported applicant information as recorded by lenders. Not all applicants provide race, ethnicity, or sex information, and some entries are recorded by visual observation as permitted by HMDA.
  • Lending data may contain reporting variations or errors from the original source institutions. The CFPB performs validation but does not independently verify all reported values. PlainLender is not affiliated with the CFPB or any government agency.

Reuse and Citation

PlainLender's institution and geography pages are freely citable and linkable, please link back to the specific page you drew a figure from rather than a screenshot, since HMDA data is revised on the CFPB's own schedule. The underlying HMDA dataset is a U.S. government work in the public domain; PlainLender's own presentation (narrative framing, computed aggregates, and page design) is not licensed for wholesale republication or scraping.

Contact

Questions about our data? Email hello@plainlender.com.