Mortgage credit availability decreased 1.2% in February compared with January to reach a score of 180.7 on the Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA) Mortgage Credit Availability Index (MCAI).
A decrease in the MCAI indicates that lending standards are tightening, while increases in the index are indicative of loosening credit. The index was benchmarked to 100 in March 2012.
Credit availability for conventional mortgages decreased 2.5%, while credit availability for government loans decreased 0.2%.
Credit availability for jumbo loans fell 2.8%, while credit availability for conforming loans decreased 2.1%.
In a statement, Lynn Fisher, vice president of research and economics for the MBA, says “a change in program offerings from a single large investor in the conventional space was responsible for much of the net decline.”
“The decline in February returned the jumbo component index to levels just above year-end levels, and the conforming component index to levels just above last October,” Fisher says. “The government component index continued along the same modest downward trajectory that it has been on for nearly a year.”