Mortgage credit availability dipped in November as lending standards tightened slightly, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association's (MBA) Mortgage Credit Availability Index (MCAI).
Credit availability dropped 1.2% from an index score of 111.5 in October to 110.2 in November.
The index was benchmarked at 100 in March 2012. If tracking had started in 2007, the index would have hit roughly 800 in November.
The report notes that in November, a significant number of loan programs allowing for more than 95 loan-to-value (LTV) and low- to mid-range minimum FICOs were either discontinued or transitioned into programs with lower LTV maximums and/or higher minimum credit scores.
In addition, investors continued to pull back from programs with greater than 30-year terms and interest-only programs to prepare for new regulations going into effect in January.
The MCAI is calculated using several factors related to borrower eligibility, including credit score, loan type and LTV. These metrics and underwriting criteria for more than 85 lenders/investors are combined with other data and a proprietary formula derived by the MBA to calculate the MCAI.