The Mortgage Bankers Association’s Mortgage Credit Availability Index increased by 0.6 percent to 125.4 in March.
Mortgage Credit Availability Index
A decline 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.
Broken down by loan type, the Conventional MCAI increased 0.8 percent, while the Government MCAI increased by 0.4 percent. Of the component indices of the Conventional MCAI, the Jumbo MCAI increased by 1.5 percent and the Conforming MCAI rose by 0.2 percent.
“Credit availability inched higher in March, driven by the ongoing economic and job market recovery,” said Joel Kan, MBA associate vice president of economic and industry forecasting. “This has increased the amount of low credit score and high LTV products. All the market segments covered by our sub-indexes increased over the month, notably government and jumbo indexes. The government index, which includes FHA, VA and RHS mortgages, increased for the sixth time in seven months to its highest level in a year.