ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Home Mortgage Disclosure Act

Okay buddy, so you know how grown-ups sometimes borrow money to buy a house? Well, the government made a rule called the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA) that says lenders have to tell them about all the home loans they make.

Why does the government want to know this? So they can make sure banks and lenders aren’t doing anything unfair, like only giving loans to certain people or neighborhoods. This is called “discrimination,” which means treating some people differently because of things like their race, gender, or where they live.

By looking at all the loans that lenders do, the government can check to see if they are treating everyone fairly. They can see if certain groups of people are getting fewer loans than they should, and then they can talk to the lenders about how to fix it.

So the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act is like a way for the government to keep an eye on banks and lenders to make sure everyone has a fair chance to buy a house.