Along with its monthly report on mortgage credit availability (MCAI) the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) has introduced two new measures, a conventional index and a government index.  The two are components of the MCAI.

The MCAI for October is unchanged from the previous month at 116.1.  MBA analyzes data from the AllRegs® Market Clarity® product to derive the index which is benchmarked to 100 in March 2012.  A decline in its number indicates that lending standards are tightening while a higher number shows a loosening of credit.

The two components are constructed using the same methodology to show relative credit availability for convention loans and for FHA, VA, and USDA/RHS loans.  Using data from MCAI and MBA's Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey MBA calibrated the two indexes and benchmarked them to March 2012 as well. at a Total=100 benchmark.  Historical data for the two components dates to 2011.

Each of the component indices moved only slightly from September to October; the Government MCAI decreased slightly and the Conventional index increased but the movements in each case was less than 1 percentage point.