2022-10772. Proposed Collection; Comment Request

AGENCY:

Federal Housing Finance Agency.

ACTION:

30-Day notice of submission of information collection for approval from the Office of Management and Budget.

SUMMARY:

In accordance with the requirements of the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (PRA), the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) is seeking public comments concerning an information collection known as the “American Survey of Mortgage Borrowers (ASMB),” which has been assigned control number 2590-0015 by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). FHFA intends to submit the information collection to OMB for review and approval of a three-year reinstatement of the control number, which expired on March 31, 2021.

DATES:

Interested persons may submit comments on or before June 21, 2022.

ADDRESSES:

Submit comments to the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs of the Office of Management and Budget, Attention: Desk Officer for the Federal Housing Finance Agency, Washington, DC 20503, Fax: [phone], Email: [e-mail]. Please also submit comments to FHFA, identified by “Proposed Collection; Comment Request: `American Survey of Mortgage Borrowers, (No. 2022-N-5)' ” by any of the following methods:

• Agency Website: www.fhfa.gov/​open-for-comment-or-input.

• Federal eRulemaking Portal: http://www.regulations.gov. Follow the instructions for submitting comments. If you submit your comment to the Federal eRulemaking Portal, please also send it by email to FHFA at [e-mail] to ensure timely receipt by the agency.

• Mail/Hand Delivery: Federal Housing Finance Agency, 400 Seventh Street SW, Washington, DC 20219, ATTENTION: Proposed Collection; Comment Request: “American Survey of Mortgage Borrowers, (No. 2022-N-5).” Please note that all mail sent to FHFA via U.S. Mail is routed through a national irradiation facility, a process that may delay delivery by approximately two weeks. For any time-sensitive correspondence, please plan accordingly.

We will post all public comments we receive without change, including any personal information you provide, such as your name and address, email address, and telephone number, on the FHFA website at http://www.fhfa.gov. In addition, copies of all comments received will be available for examination by the public through the electronic comment docket for this PRA Notice also located on the FHFA website.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

Saty Patrabansh, Manager, National Mortgage Database Program, [e-mail], [phone]; or Angela Supervielle, Counsel, [e-mail], [phone], (these are not toll-free numbers), Federal Housing Finance Agency, 400 Seventh Street SW, Washington, DC 20219. For TTY/TRS users with hearing and speech disabilities, dial 711 and ask to be connected to any of the contact numbers above.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

A. Background

The American Survey of Mortgage Borrowers (ASMB) is a component of the “National Mortgage Database” (NMDB®) Program, which is a joint effort of FHFA and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) (jointly, “the agencies”). The NMDB Program is designed to satisfy the Congressionally-mandated requirements of section 1324(c) of the Federal Housing Enterprises Financial Safety and Soundness Act.^[1] Section 1324(c) requires that FHFA conduct a monthly survey to collect data on the characteristics of individual prime and subprime mortgages, and on the borrowers and properties associated with those mortgages, in order to enable it to prepare a detailed annual report on the mortgage market activities of the Federal National Mortgage Association (Fannie Mae) and the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation (Freddie Mac) for review by the appropriate Congressional oversight committees. Section 1324(c) also authorizes and requires FHFA to compile a database of otherwise unavailable residential mortgage market information and to make that information available to the public in a timely fashion.

As a means of fulfilling those and other statutory requirements, as well as to support policymaking and research regarding the residential mortgage markets, FHFA and CFPB jointly established the NMDB Program in 2012. The Program is designed to provide comprehensive information about the U.S. mortgage market and has three primary components: (1) The NMDB; (2) the quarterly National Survey of Mortgage Originations (NSMO); and (3) the ASMB.

The NMDB is a de-identified loan-level database of closed-end first-lien residential mortgage loans that is representative of the market as a whole, contains detailed loan-level information on the terms and performance of the mortgages and the characteristics of the associated borrowers and properties, is continually updated, has an historical component dating back to 1998, and provides a sampling frame for surveys to collect additional information. The core data in the NMDB are drawn from a random 1-in-20 sample of all closed-end first-lien mortgages outstanding at any time between January 1998 and the present in the files of Experian, one of the three national credit repositories, with a random sample of mortgages newly reported to Experian added each quarter.

The NMDB draws additional information on mortgages in the NMDB datasets from other existing sources, including Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA) data that are maintained by the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council (FFIEC), property valuation models, and administrative data files maintained by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and by federal agencies. FHFA also obtains data from the two surveys conducted as part of the program—the NSMO and the ASMB.

The NSMO is a quarterly survey that provides critical and timely information on newly-originated mortgages and associated borrowers that are not available from other sources, including: The range of nontraditional and subprime mortgage products being offered, the methods by which these mortgages are being marketed, and the characteristics of borrowers for these types of loans.^[2]

While the NSMO provides information on newly-originated mortgages, the ASMB focuses on borrowers' experience with maintaining their existing mortgages. This includes their experience maintaining mortgages under financial stress, their experience in soliciting financial assistance, their success in accessing federally sponsored programs designed to assist them, and, where applicable, any challenges they may have had in terminating a mortgage loan. The ASMB is designed to collect information necessary to allow empirical analysis of two questions of vital importance to residential mortgage market policymakers and stakeholders: (1) What factors explain or predict which borrowers will become delinquent on their mortgages; and (2) once a borrower becomes delinquent, what factors explain or predict whether the borrower will (a) become current on the loan, (b) decide they cannot afford the mortgage and sell the property or modify the mortgage, or (c) remain delinquent and enter into foreclosure.

From 2016 through 2018, the ASMB questionnaire was sent once annually to a stratified random sample of 10,000 borrowers with mortgages in the NMDB. FHFA did not undertake the ASMB during 2019, but sent the survey again in the fall of 2020 with a specific focus on the experiences of borrowers during the COVID-19 pandemic using a stratified random sample of 10,000 borrowers. The 2020 survey was substantially similar to the 2018 survey, except it included a number of questions specifically relating to the COVID-19 pandemic and its effects. In 2020, the ASMB had a 21 percent overall response rate, which yielded 2,100 survey responses. The 2022 survey is similar to the 2020 survey in its focus on how the pandemic impacted borrowers and extends the focus to the experiences of those who used forbearance.

Seven completely new questions have been added regarding expanded mortgage payment forbearance options and borrowers' overall financial health. Additionally, four questions were added which were not in the 2020 ASMB, but were in either the 2018 ASMB or the current NSMO questionnaire. The remaining questions existed in the 2020 questionnaire, although some have been revised to address issues leaving forbearance rather than issues entering it. Because of the elimination of several questions, as well as the combination of some other questions, the total number of questions has decreased from 92 on the 2020 survey questionnaire to 86 on the 2022 questionnaire.

Each of the 86 questions on the 2022 ASMB survey questionnaire is designed to elicit one or more of five different categories of information that are not available in the administrative data and that are needed either to properly analyze the issues described above or information is needed to validate the survey responses. These categories are: (1) Information needed to validate that the survey reached the correct borrower and that the borrower is providing answers about the correct loan; (2) information about the mortgage loan that does not exist in sufficient detail in the administrative data; (3) information about the borrower's economic circumstances that does not exist, or exists in insufficient detail, in the administrative data; (4) information about the borrower's attitudes regarding their mortgage, property, interactions with lenders and servicers, and life circumstances; and (5) information needed to determine the ultimate outcome of the borrower's forbearance or delinquency and the interim steps that led to that outcome.

B. Need for and Use of the Information Collection

FHFA views the NMDB Program as a whole, including the ASMB, as the monthly “survey” required by section 1324(c) of the Safety and Soundness Act. Core inputs to the NMDB, such as a regular refresh of the credit repository data, occur monthly, though the actual surveys conducted under the NMDB Program do not. The information collected through the ASMB is used, in combination with information obtained from existing sources in the NMDB, to assist FHFA in understanding how the performance of existing mortgages is influencing the residential mortgage market, what borrower groups are discussing with their servicers when they are under financial stress, and consumers' opinions of federally-sponsored programs designed to assist them. This important, but otherwise unavailable, information assists FHFA in the supervision of its regulated entities (Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and the Federal Home Loan Banks) and in the development and implementation of appropriate and effective policies and programs. The information may also be used for research and analysis by CFPB and other federal agencies that have regulatory and supervisory responsibilities and mandates related to mortgage markets and to provide a resource for research and analysis by academics and other interested parties outside of the government.

As discussed above, the agencies have added to the 2022 ASMB survey questionnaire several questions relating to the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on home mortgage borrowers. The CARES Act of 2020 ^[3] allowed a forbearance for mortgage borrowers impacted by the pandemic so they could pause or delay their mortgage payments. FHFA and CFPB are actively engaged in monitoring the outcomes of these borrowers and the effects of this policy on the residential mortgage market. As borrowers exit their forbearance periods, it is critical for both agencies to have timely access to this information to assist in evidenced-based policymaking in these areas.

FHFA is also seeking OMB approval to continue to conduct cognitive pre-testing of the survey materials. The Agency uses information collected through that process to assist in drafting and modifying the survey questions and instructions, as well as the related communications, to read in the way that will be most readily understood by the survey respondents and that will be most likely to elicit usable responses. Such information is also used to help the Agency decide on how best to organize and format the survey questionnaires.

C. Burden Estimate

This information collection comprises two components: (1) The ASMB survey; and (2) the pre-testing of the survey questionnaire and related materials through the use of cognitive testing. FHFA conducted the survey annually from 2016 through 2018, but did not conduct the survey in 2019 nor 2021. FHFA assumes that it will conduct the survey once annually over the next three years and that it will conduct two rounds of pre-testing on each year of survey materials.

FHFA has analyzed the total hour burden on members of the public associated with conducting the survey (4,200 hours) and with pre-testing the survey materials (24 hours) and estimates the total annual hour burden imposed on the public by this information collection to be 4,224 hours. The estimate for each phase of the collection was calculated as follows:

I. Conducting the Survey

FHFA estimates that the ASMB questionnaire will be sent to 10,000 recipients each time it is conducted. Although it expects that only about 2,100 of those surveys will be returned, FHFA has calculated the burden estimates below as if all of the surveys will be returned. Based on the reported experience of respondents to earlier ASMB questionnaires, FHFA estimates that it will take each respondent 25 minutes to complete each survey, including the gathering of necessary materials to respond to the questions. This results in a total annual burden estimate of 4,200 hours for the survey phase of this collection (1 survey per year × 10,000 respondents per survey × 25 minutes per respondent = 4,200 hours).

II. Pre-Testing the Materials

FHFA estimates that it will sponsor 2 rounds of 12 cognitive interviews prior to conducting each annual survey for a total of 24 cognitive interview participants. It estimates the participation time for each cognitive interview participant to be one hour, resulting in a total annual burden estimate of 24 hours for the pre-testing phase of the collection.

D. Comment Request

In accordance with the requirements of 5 CFR 1320.8(d), FHFA published an initial notice and request for public comments regarding this information collection in the Federal Register on December 28, 2021.^[4] The 60-day comment period closed on February 28, 2022. FHFA received no comments.

FHFA requests written comments on the following: (1) Whether the collection of information is necessary for the proper performance of FHFA functions, including whether the information has practical utility; (2) the accuracy of FHFA's estimates of the burdens of the collection of information; (3) ways to enhance the quality, utility, and clarity of the information collected; and (4) ways to minimize the burden of the collection of information on respondents, including through the use of automated collection techniques or other forms of information technology.

Shawn Bucholtz,

Chief Data Officer, Federal Housing Finance Agency.

Footnotes

1.  12 U.S.C. 4544(c).

2.  OMB has cleared the NSMO under the PRA and assigned it control no. 2590-0012, which expires on June 30, 2023.

3.  Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act, Public Law 116-136 (2020).

4.   See 86 FR 73770 (Dec. 28, 2021).