Mortgage credit availability loosened in August as lenders have more jumbo loan products and added loans for borrowers with less-sterling credit, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association.
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"While much of the loosening has been for jumbo loan products, the availability of conforming conventional mortgage credit has also somewhat increased, including for mortgages with higher loan-to-value ratios and borrowers with lower credit scores," Mike Fratantoni, chief economist, said in a Thursday news release.
The jumbo MCAI reported the highest increase, with a 0.7% rise on a monthly basis. The conventional MCAI rose 0.5%, the government MCAI rose 0.4% and the conforming MCAI rose 0.3%.
The MBA generates the MCAI index by looking at loan program data from Ellie Mae's AllRegs Market Clarity product. In March 2012, MCAI was benchmarked to 100.