Home loan outcomes in Lucas County, Ohio – home to Toledo – vary by income and race, according to Cleveland Fed researcher’s analysis of HMDA data

Using Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA) data to examine trends in mortgage lending in Lucas County, Ohio – home to Toledo – during a 27-year period beginning in 1990, Lisa Nelson, community development research manager at the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, finds that:

• The number of mortgage loan applications and originations has fluctuated in tandem with mortgage interest rates and recessions, notably the Great Recession.
• Mortgage loan originations in Lucas County, Ohio, reached a high point in 2003 and a low point in 2014. The spikes in originations are driven mainly by refinance loans, which comprised 70 percent of total origination activity in 2003.
• After decreasing annually since 2005, home purchase originations ticked up in 2011 and continued to do so through 2016.
• White borrowers are proportionally more likely to obtain a home purchase loan than black borrowers. In 2016, the home purchase rate for white low- and moderate-income (LMI) borrowers was four times the rate for black LMI borrowers, and the rate for white non-LMI borrowers was two times the rate for black non-LMI borrowers.

Find more information in Home Lending in Lucas County Neighborhoods.

Examine trends in mortgage lending for other counties within our region: Cuyahoga, Franklin, Hamilton, and Montgomery Counties in Ohio; Allegheny County in Pennsylvania; and Fayette County in Kentucky.

Use the Home Mortgage Explorer, a tool developed by the Cleveland and Philadelphia Feds, to examine trends in mortgage lending for other US metro areas.

Read our latest Toledo Metro Mix, a snapshot of local economic conditions.

Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland

The Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland is one of 12 regional Reserve Banks that along with the Board of Governors in Washington DC comprise the Federal Reserve System. Part of the US central bank, the Cleveland Fed participates in the formulation of our nation’s monetary policy, supervises banking organizations, provides payment and other services to financial institutions and to the US Treasury, and performs many activities that support Federal Reserve operations System-wide. In addition, the Bank supports the well-being of communities across the Fourth Federal Reserve District through a wide array of research, outreach, and educational activities.

The Cleveland Fed, with branches in Cincinnati and Pittsburgh, serves an area that comprises Ohio, western Pennsylvania, eastern Kentucky, and the northern panhandle of West Virginia.

Media contact

Doug Campbell, doug.campbell@clev.frb.org, 513.455.4479