U.S. Mortgage Index

Low-to-moderate income

Also called LMI

Definition

Low-to-moderate income, or LMI, is a regulatory income classification used in Community Reinvestment Act work and related mortgage-data analysis. It is not the same measure as area median income, though AMI is often used to build the classification.

In plain English

Researchers and regulators group borrowers or neighborhoods by income. LMI is the official short label for the lower and moderate bands in that work. AMI is the local income yardstick. LMI is a classification that uses income relative to that kind of yardstick. This page does not publish current cutoffs.

Technical definition

The FFIEC CRA identity page is PRIMARY for the regulatory program that uses LMI classification. HMDA is supporting data context, not the CRA definition.

Why it matters

US Mortgage Index publishes HMDA and lender data. LMI is a methodology term readers will meet in that work.

Sources reviewed

Important note

Do not publish current income-ratio cutoffs as consumer advice.