Fed Loan Officer Survey: Mortgage Standards Mostly Unchanged in the Third Quarter as Housing Loan Demand Weakened
The Federal Reserve released its October 2026 Senior Loan Officer Opinion Survey (SLOOS) on November 2, painting a picture of steady standards and softening demand in mortgage credit. Over the third quarter, banks reported that they 'left standards basically unchanged, on net, for most types of residential mortgage loans,' while demand weakened, on balance, across all residential real estate loan categories. Demand for home equity lines of credit was unchanged.
SLOOS is the Fed's quarterly window into the supply of and demand for bank credit. For this round, the survey was sent out on September 21 with responses due October 5; 61 domestic banks and 18 U.S. branches and agencies of foreign banks replied. Figures are reported on a net basis — the share of banks reporting one direction of change minus the share reporting the opposite.
By loan type, the share of domestic banks reporting moderately weaker demand rose notably for GSE-eligible home-purchase loans, and government and non-GSE loan categories showed similar softening. Standards told the opposite story: the overwhelming majority of banks reported no change in their approval standards for each mortgage category. In other words, banks did not tighten the mortgage tap further; the cooling is coming from the borrower side.
The findings line up with recent market data: with 30-year mortgage rates holding above 7 percent, purchase and refinance applications have stayed subdued and many would-be buyers remain on the sidelines. Unchanged standards suggest the banking system is not adding its own brake — the market's chill reflects demand constrained by rates and prices.
The Senior Loan Officer Opinion Survey has been conducted quarterly since the 1990s and is a regular input into Federal Reserve policy discussions. The full October report, covering business as well as household credit, is published on the Federal Reserve's website.
(Source: Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System)
Source: Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 美联储总部埃克尔斯大楼，位于华盛顿特区。图片来自 Wikimedia Commons，CC BY 4.0。 / The Marriner S. Eccles Federal Reserve Building in Washington, D.C. Image via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0.
