Mortgage Data

Why is mortgage activity data important?

Mortgage activity data measures the flow of mortgage credit into an area and is indicative of the level of lender investment. The level of mortgage activity in a neighborhood relative to other areas can be used to assess how access to credit has changed over time in a community and how the flow of credit differs across geographies and for different property types within a geography. 

IHS has used parcel-level mortgage data in our Data Clearinghouse to:

Aggregated data are available on the IHS Data Portal for metro area counties, metro areas municipalities, Cook County subregions, Cook County municipalities, and City of Chicago wards and community areas.  For Cook County subregions and municipalities and City of Chicago community areas and wards, data are also available across property types. Data are available from 2005, allowing for analysis of trends in this indicator to be examined over time.

Subtypes available on the IHS Data Portal

  • Total Mortgage Activity. Total mortgage recordings in a given year are available for all residential properties.  In Cook County, data are broken out separately for total mortgage activity on single family homes, condominium units, two-to-four unit buildings, and in buildings with five or more units.
  • Mortgages per 100 Residential Parcels. Per parcel mortgage activity allows for comparison of yearly mortgage activity across geographies.

About the Data

Data on mortgage recordings are collected from collected from the county recorder of deeds offices via Property Insight and includes information on all originated mortgages secured by real estate for home purchase, refinance, home improvement, or equity line of credit. Underlying mortgage recordings data includes information on the date of origination, the mortgage amount, and the name of the lender and the borrower. IHS connects these data to information on the subject property using data from the county assessor offices.