According to the Mortgage Credit Availability Index (MCAI) from the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA), mortgage credit availability declined 2.4 percent in Dec. 2015. A decline in the MCAI states that lending standards are tightening, while the increase in the index signifies loosening credit.

Lynn Fisher, MBA’s vice president of research and economics, said the cause of the decline was more technical, rather than a problem with the housing market.

“A decline to the index is generally indicative of tightening lending standards,” Fisher said. “However, this month, a large part of the decline was driven by a technical issue related to implementation of affordable, low down payment, loan programs. Many investors discontinued existing low down payment loan programs, only to replace them with new iterations of similar programs that were discontinued.”