The mortgage loan market has had shifts over the past couple months with an up this week, down last week pattern. Within that pattern is statistics that show refinance volume has slowed while first time home buyer applications have increased.
Surging home prices and strong demand caused a three month reduction in single family homes sales, but this trend was reversed with a small 1% increase in July.
It is well known that home sales and mortgage loan statistics have reached and surpassed historic performance. With a variety of sources for how these statistics are tracked, it can become confusing to understand.
The Adverse Market Fee is defined as a 0.5% fee added in 2020 to refinanced mortgage loans backed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (about 70% of all home loans). It was charged to lenders and usually passed on to homeowners through closing costs, as an addition to their loan amount or by a raised interest rate.
Sale of residential properties in California continue to perform at the hottest pace in history, resulting in a 65% increase in number of sales over the same period last year. The number of homes sold above asking price, the price per square foot, and the sales-to-list price records are all at industry highs.
In a recent article on Reuters.com they report that “Fed officials agreed last month to leave interest rates near zero and to keep purchasing $120 billion a month in bonds until the U.S. economy makes substantial further progress toward the Fed’s goals for inflation and maximum employment” They further inform us that “Fed Bank President Robert Kaplan said on Monday that he still thinks it is possible the U.S. central bank could raise interest rates before the end of 2022, reaffirming the projection he made during the March policy-setting meeting.“
After seeing mortgage rates increase in the first quarter of 2021, homeowners and buyers that are in the process of seeking mortgage loans were excited to see mortgage rates drop to the lowest levels seen in the past month.
Mortgage interest rate volatility continued in February with many lenders quoting interest rates higher than just a couple weeks earlier. Many home buyers and those seeking mortgage refinance are expressing concern about how high mortgage rates may increase this year.
MortgageNewsDaily.com reports that according to Ice Mortgage Technology (formerly Ellie Mae), in their Loan Origination Report for January, “closed loans continued to show declining note rates in January, dropping from an average of 2.93 percent in December to 2.88 percent” and also includes “Interest rates continued to decline in January, driving up the share of refinances by seven percent,”
Mortgage refinance rates are at such a low point that, according to a recent article on CNBC.com, nearly 20 million home owners could save money if they refinance now. Are you one of the 20 million?