Lending Standards Continue to Tighten

According to the Federal Reserve Board’s July 2023 Senior Loan Officer Opinion Survey (SLOOS) for second-quarter 2023 bank lending activity, banks reported that lending standards tightened for all residential real estate (RRE) and commercial real estate (CRE) loan categories.

Banks expect their lending standards across all loan categories to tighten further over the second half of 2023. Expectations of more tightening were fueled by increased economic uncertainty and an expected deterioration of collateral values and credit quality of existing loans according to respondents.

As standards tightened, banks also reported weaker demand for both RRE and CRE loans. The net share of banks reporting weaker demand averaged 38.9% across RRE loan categories — a large improvement from the 50.8% and 87.4% averages in fourth quarter 2022 and first quarter 2023, respectively.

A majority (71.7%) of banks tightened standards for construction and land development loans, while 63.3% of banks tightened standards on loans secured by multifamily properties in the second quarter. Additionally, roughly half of respondents indicated weaker demand for these loans in the second quarter relative to first quarter.

David Logan, NAHB director of tax and trade policy analysis, provides more details in this Eye on Housing post.