On August 27, 2015, the CFPB issued two Technical Reports:  one on the National Mortgage Database (NMDB), and the other on the National Survey of Mortgage Borrowers (NSMB).

The NMDB project is a joint undertaking by the FHFA and CFPB and is designed to give information about the U.S. Mortgage Market based on a 5% sample of residential mortgages.  The project has two components:  (1) the NMDB, and (2) the quarterly NSMB.  The NMDB will enable the FHFA to meet its statutory requirements to collect data on the characteristics of mortgages and on the creditworthiness of borrowers.  For the CFPB, the project will support policymaking and market monitoring.

Technical Report 15-01 National Mortgage Database

  • The report is designed to provide users of the NMDB data with background on development of the database as well as an assessment on the quality of data.
  • The core data in the NMBD are drawn from a random 1-in-20 sample of all closed-end first-lien mortgage files outstanding at any time between January 1998 and June 2012 in the files of Experian, one of the three national credit repositories.  The random sample of mortgages newly reported to Experian is added each quarter and they are followed in the database until they terminate through prepayment (including refinancing), foreclosure or maturity.  Information from the credit repository files on each borrower associated with the mortgages in the NMDB sample is collected from at least one year prior to origination to one year after termination of the mortgage.  The information on borrowers and loans in the NMDB does not include any directly identifying information.
  • The report discusses the development of the contract with Experian, outlines the process of selecting the initial historical sample, describes how the initial sample data were processed, how the data is updated and how administrative date is merged into the NMBD.   The final section evaluates the NMBD sample frame.

Technical Report 15-02 National Survey of Mortgage Borrowers

  • The NSMB component of the NMDB project is designed to provide de-identified data for analyzing housing mortgage related public policy, improving lending practices and the mortgage process.
  • The voluntary survey is conducted by mail and supplements the NMDB by providing information that is not in the database.  One example is information related to mortgage shopping.
  • The survey sample is derived from mortgages that are part of the NMDB and targets newly originated closed-end first-lien residential mortgages.
  • For the NSMB, a random sample of about 6,000 loans per quarter is drawn from loans newly added to the NMDB.
  • The report provides background data on how the NSMB was developed, discusses the development of the survey questionnaire, the survey sample frame and the logistics of conducting the survey.  In addition, the report analyzes survey responses for four waves, discusses how the usable population for analysis is derived, and describes the processes to refine the usable survey dataset and sampling error of the survey.
  • The survey cover letter and NSMB questionnaire are included as an Appendix to the report.

Please refer to the Technical Reports for more detailed information.