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​National Survey of Mortgage Originations (NSMO) Publ​​ic Use File

The National Survey of Mortgage Originations (NSMO) is a component of the National Mortgage Database (NMDB®) program.  It is a quarterly mail survey jointly funded and managed by the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB).  NSMO provides unique and rich information for a nationally representative sample of newly originated closed-end first-lien residential mortgages in the United States, particularly about borrowers’ experiences getting a mortgage, their perceptions of the mortgage market, and their future expectations.  This voluntary survey is administered by Westat, a survey and data collection corporation, to the borrowers associated with the sample mortgages.  The respondents can either return the English questionnaire by mail or complete the survey online in English or Spanish. 

NSMO draws its sample from newly originated mortgages that are part of the NMDB, which is a 1-in-20 sample of closed-end first-lien residential mortgages newly reported to one of the three national credit bureaus.  Beginning with mortgages originated in 2013, a simple random sample of about 6,000 mortgages per quarter is drawn for NSMO from loans newly added to the NMDB. The NSMO survey has been conducted quarterly since the first quarter of 2014. The current survey package sent to the respondents can be viewed here.

​The NSMO public use file was updated on March 3, 2023, to append additional survey records and two additional quarters of mortgage performance information. It replaced the public use file released on December 13, 2022, containing data for sample mortgage originated from 2013 through 2020 based on the first 30 quarterly waves of the NSMO survey. The updated file contains 45, 235 sample mortgages for the same origination years based on the same quarterly waves.

The original NSMO public use file was published on November 8, 2018, containing mortgages originated from 2013 through 2016. It was first updated on February 20, 2020, containing mortgages originated through 2017, and subsequently updated on July 29, 2021, containing mortgages originated through 2019.

If you would like to sign up to receive email notifications when the NSMO data or documents are updated, please enter your email in the “Want to Subscribe" section on the bottom of the page.

Da​taset

The Public Use File (PUF) is available in several formats including CSV, JSON, R, SAS, Stata, and XML.  By ​downloading and using the following data files, you are acknowledging​ that you have read and agreed to the Notice of Monitoring and Terms of Service​.

Link to Public U​se File​ (3/3/2023)

Code

SAS Labels (3/3/2023)

SAS Formats​ (3/3/2023)

Documentation

NSMO Technical Documentation​ (3/3/2023)

Codebook and Unweighted Tabulations​ (3/3/2023)

Select Weighted Tabulations, 2013-2020​ (3/3/2023)

Questionnaires

Wave 40 (2023 Quarter 4)

Wave 39 (2023 Quarter 3)

Waves 35 to 38 (202​2 Quarter 3 to 2023 Quarter 2)

Waves 35 to 37 (202​2 Quarter 3 to 2023 Quarter 1)

Waves 31 to 34 (2021 Quarter 3 to 2022 Quarter 2)

Waves 29 and 30 (2021 Quarter 1 and 2021 Quarter 2)

Waves 26 to 28 (2020 Quarters 2 to 4)

Waves 25 (2020 Quarter 1)

Waves 23 and 24 (2019 Quarters 3 and 4)

Waves 19 to 22 (2018 Quarter 3 to 2019 Quarter 2)

Waves 15 to 18 (2017 Quarter 3 to 2018 Quarter 2)

Waves 13 and 14 (2017 Quarters 1 and 2)

Waves 11 and 12 (2016 Quarters 3 and 4)

Wave 10 (2016 Quarter 2)

Wave 9 (2016 Quarter 1)

Wave 8 (2015 Quarter 4)

Wave 7 (2015 Quarter 3)

Waves 5 and 6 (2015 Quarters 1 and 2)

Wave 4 (2014 Quarter 4)

Wave 3 (2014 Quarter 3)​

Waves 1 and 2 (2014 Quarters 1 and 2)

​Contacts

If you have any questions or comments about the data or documents, please email NSMOdata@fhfa.gov.

Page last updated: March 8, 2024

Press Releases

F​HFA and CFPB Release Updated Data from the National​ Survey of Mortgage Originations for Public Use (12/13/2022)

F​HFA and CFPB Release Updated Data from the National Survey of Mortgage Originations for Public Use (7/29/2021)

F​HFA Announces New and Expanded Statistical Products from the National Mortgage Database (6/30/2021)

FHFA and CFPB Release Additional Data from the National Survey of Mortgage Originations for Public Use (2/20/2020)

FHFA and BCFP Release National Survey of Mortgage Originations Dataset for Public Use (11/8/2018)

FHFA and CFPB Partner on Development of National Mortgage Database (11/1/2012)

 

Other Data

NMDB Aggregate Data (3/31/2023)

 

Flyer

NSMO (3/3/2023)
  

Technical Documentation

NMDB (12/28/2022)

NSMO (3/3/2023)


 

NMDB Staff Working Papers​

18-02: First-Time Homebuyer Counseling and the Mortgage Selection Experience (3/14/2018)

18-01: Mortgage Experience of Rural Borrowers (3/14/2018)​​​​​​​​​​


 

NSMO Symposium in Cityscape

Link to Cityscape

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