Mortgage loan application volume fell another 1.3% last week, the Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA) weekly survey shows. The adjusted Market Composite Index, a measure of mortgage loan application volume, dropped by 1.3%. The adjusted purchase index rose by 1%, while the unadjusted purchase index rose by 2% and was 6% lower YOY. The refinance index fell 5% and was down 62% YOY. Refinances made up 37.1% of total applications, down from 38.8%. The 30-year fixed-rate hit 5.13%, the highest since November 2018, resulting in refis falling to their slowest weekly pace since 2019. “Higher rates are increasing borrower interest in ARMs. Their share of applications last week was at 7.4%, which was the highest share since June 2019,” said Joel…
Delinquencies dropped again in January to their lowest rate since at least January 1999 thanks to home price appreciation and the strong jobs market, according to CoreLogic’s monthly Loan Performance Insights Report for January 2022. Only 3.3% of all U.S. mortgages were in some stage of delinquency, a 2.3% drop YOY. January marked the tenth straight month of annual declines. Early-stage delinquencies (30 to 59 days past due) accounted for 1.2% of mortgages, down from 1.3% the year prior. Adverse delinquencies (60 to 89 days) were down from 0.5% in January 2021 to 0.3%. Serious delinquencies (90 days, including loans in foreclosure) were down from 3.8% to 1.8%. Serious delinquencies hit a record high of 4.3% in August 2020. CoreLogic…
By KIMBERLEY HAAS Rocket Pro TPO is promising to clear eligible loans in no more than 15 business days and leaders there say they are able to guarantee these closing times because of the company’s investment in technology. Kevin Randolph, Senior Vice President of Operations at Rocket Pro TPO, said they have spent billions of dollars to accelerate their creation of propriety technology. They have rolled out new programs such as PathFinder, a proprietary mortgage guideline search engine. Rocket Connect provides brokers with communication with underwriters and operational leaders directly in the broker portal. Rocket Pro TPO’s new pricing calculator can deliver brokers a pricing estimate quickly and easily, according to the company. Randolph said in an interview with The…
By CHUCK GREEN Office vacancy rates are being monitored closely as the commercial space industry continues to grapple with COVID’s effects on the workplace. In Los Angeles, office activity stagnated in the first quarter of 2022. One-fifth of total inventory remained vacant and rents remained unchanged, according to Greg Cornfield at Commercial Observer. Other major metro areas, including New York City, Boston, San Francisco, Washington DC, and Chicago, also continue to experience double-digit vacancy rates. Stemming from remote work due to the variant, San Francisco and DC reportedly kicked off the year with vacancies approaching 20%. In major U.S. markets vacancies of around 60% were recently shown by Kastle Systems, which measures occupancy by looking at foot traffic into offices.…
By KIMBERLEY HAAS New data shows that 79% of Americans would rather renovate their current home than move to a different one and with $420 billion spent on remodeling projects in 2020 those in the mortgage, real estate, and building industries are taking notice. Discover Home Loans commissioned a national survey of 1,531 homeowners. The independent survey research firm Dynata fielded the first of the online surveys in January and found that nearly four in five people would rather make improvements on their homes than move in the current housing market. The maximum margin of sampling error was +/-3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. The top five reasons given for why homeowners would rather renovate are:…
By SCOTT KIMBLER Potential homebuyers are rushing to mortgage offices to make sure they get a loan before prices and interest rates go even higher. Mortgage rates jumped again to an average of 4.67%, up from last week’s 4.42%, Freddie Mac reported Thursday. At the same time, the spring selling season is looking promising for sellers. Home prices rose 1.84% in February and 19.6% year-over-year – the largest annual gains on record – according to Black Knight’s Monthly Mortgage Monitor Report. These numbers, along with an awkward supply and demand situation, are pushing some buyers who are in a position to do so to go ahead with their home purchase now. Jerry Stover, sales manager with Homeowners Financial, said this has been…
By KIMBERLEY HAAS Officials at the U.S. Department of Justice are claiming that condominiums and apartment complexes in Hawaii were built without accessible features required by the Fair Housing Act. The federal act prohibits discrimination in housing on the basis of disability, race, color, religion, sex, familial status, and national origin. An amended complaint was filed Monday at the U.S. District Court for the District of Hawaii. Two of the five properties cited were built with financial assistance from the federal government’s Low-Income Housing Tax Credit program. They are Kahului Town Terrace, in Kahului, Maui, and Palehua Terrace, in Kapolei, Oahu. The other three properties are Napilihau Villages and Napili Villas, in Lahaina, Maui, as well as Wailea Fairway Villas,…
The share of young homebuyers under the age of 30 has dropped below pre-pandemic levels as the affordability crisis prices them out of the market, according to a survey by CoreLogic. Young homebuyers took advantage of historically low-interest rates in 2020, accounting for 22% of homebuyers, a record high for the age group. But the share fell back to pre-pandemic levels in 2021 and further declined at the beginning of 2022. Controlled for seasonality, the share of young homebuyers in January and February 2022 is at a ten-year low. Markets in the Midwest have a higher portion of young homebuyers than coastal areas. More affordable metros have the highest share as young homebuyers – who typically have lower incomes and…
By KIMBERLEY HAAS As the spring selling season begins, people in the mortgage and real estate industries are speculating on whether 2022 will be a year of growth or the start of the end for a red-hot market that has favored sellers and forced up the price of housing in many parts of the country. Numbers from the start of the year look promising for growth. On Tuesday, S&P Dow Jones Indices released the latest results for the S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller Indices. A 19.2% annual gain was reported in January, up from 18.9% in December. The 10-City Composite annual increase was 17.5%, up from 17.1% in December. The 20-City Composite posted a 19.1% year-over-year gain, up from 18.6% in the previous…
Homes are less affordable than they were a year ago, but they largely remain more affordable than at the peak of the 2006 housing boom, according to First American Financial Corporation’s Real House Price Index. In January, the RHPI rose 27% from the year prior, making it the fastest-growing RHPI – and fastest YOY decline in affordability – since 2004. This was driven by a 21.7% increase in home prices and a 0.7% rise in rates. The RHPI measures price changes for single-family properties adjusted for the impact of income and interest rate changes on consumer house-buying power. As such, it also serves as a measure of affordability. Household income was up 5% from January 2021, but that gain was…
