Census/CRA Data

Modex collects data from the US Census Bureau and the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council (FFIEC) on an annual basis to understand the makeup of mortgage transactions nationwide.

The Census/CRA functionality does not provide an absolute answer to the diverse makeup of specific mortgage transactions. It does however provide "broad brush strokes" to understand the diversity of markets being served.

How does Modex handle the current year when new Census data isn't available?

Modex will reference the most recent previous year when current year Census data isn't available. For example, if you're looking at a loan officer's rolling 12 months of production in 2023, we would be referencing Census data from 2022 to generate their Census/CRA metrics.

How often is Census data refreshed and how historical is it? Where does Census data come from?

Census data is refreshed annually as the FFIEC publishes it. Modex provides Census data back to 2019 (to match our Transaction Timeframes). Census data comes from the FFIEC which is sourced from the US Census and various other sources.

What does the Census data show me?

Census data allows our clients to understand the makeup of the population where loan transactions occurred. Those loan transactions can be tied to a loan officer, branch, company, or geography.

Modex is able to show a break down of income level, CRA criteria (distressed, remote/rural, poverty, and unemployment), and ethnicity/race. As mentioned prior, the data does not represent the actual income or race/ethnicity of the borrower(s) involved in the transaction.

For example, if a transaction occurs within a census tract that the US Census Bureau/FFIEC has identified as "impoverished" that doesn't necessarily mean the the transaction itself was to an impoverished borrower, it means the geography (census tract) that the transaction occurred has been identified by the US Census Bureau/FFIEC as impoverished.

What Census filters are available?

Across loan officer, branch, and company filtering you are able to filter by:

  • Diversity (Race/Ethnicity)
    • Asian, Black, Hawaiian, Hispanic, Native American, White, and Other
  • CRA Criteria
    • Distressed Census Tract
    • Impoverished Census Tract
    • Remote/Rural Census Tract
    • Unemployment Census Tract
  • Income Level
    • Low, Middle, Moderate, Upper

What Census data is available on a Detail Page?

Detail Pages for loan officers, branches, and companies all include graphs for: income level, diversity (race/ethnicity), Distressed census tracts, Impoverished census tracts, Remote/Rural census tracts, and Unemployment census tracts.

How does the "Census Diversity" filter differ from the "Census Income" and "Census CRA Criteria" filters?

The Modex Census/CRA functionality creates metrics by looking at transactions that occurred within one or multiple census tracts and the characteristics of those census tracts. For the census tract characteristics:

  • A census tract either is or is not distressed, impoverished, remote/rural, or has high unemployment.
  • A census tract either has a low, middle, moderate, or upper income level.
  • A census tract can have a near infinite amount of different populations by rate/ethnicity.

When looking at "Census Diversity" (race/ethnicity), we are looking at the population of each race/ethnicity within a census tract and adding it up. Once added up, we create an average based on how many transactions occurred within that census tract.

The "Census Diversity" filter and graph on detail pages are representative of which communities a loan officer, branch, or company serve.

Why is it called "CRA Diversity" and not "CRA Race" or "CRA Ethnicity"?

Census data provides both race and ethnicity data, but our Engineering Team opted to combine both race and ethnicity to create a more holistic view of diversity.

What is the CRA?

Community Reinvestment Act (CRA). According to the Federal Reserve, the CRA is federal legislation that is designed to "encourage financial institutions to help meet the credit needs of the communities in which they do business, including low- and moderate-income (LMI) neighborhoods."

What does it mean if a census tract is distressed, impoverished, remote/rural, or unemployed?

The US Census Bureau and the FFIEC publish documentation on the various criteria that needs to be met to indicate a census tract is distressed, impoverished, remote/rural, or unemployed. Please visit their respective websites to learn more:

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