Home Mortgage Disclosure Act - HMDA

Being the victim of an overshare can be really uncomfortable. The stranger at the pharmacy who tells us all about his mysterious rash…the sweet old lady in our apartment building who gives us way too many details about her rediscovered romance with her husband, etc. There are some things out there in the world that we just, uh...really don’t want to know about.

But information about mortgages isn’t one of those things, which is why the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (its nickname is HMDA, pronounced “hmm-duh”) was introduced in 1975. This act forces mortgage lenders to publish accurate information about loan applications they’ve received, including how much the loans were for, what the credentials and demographics of the applicant were, the location of the homes people were trying to buy, and whether or not the application was approved. This has been good for the government, because not only do they have all kinds of interesting info about would-be homebuyers in the U.S., but they can also make sure banks and lenders aren’t being shady with their loans. It’s been great for the rest of us too, because we can check the data for different lenders when we’re looking to buy our next home.