Quote: March 18, 2024

“The fourth quarter of 2023 was about as challenging as it could get for mortgage lenders to generate a production profit. The fourth quarter is typically the slowest pace of purchase activity for the year. This year was exacerbated by the current lack of housing inventory and mortgage rates that increased to their highest levels of the year, keeping refinancings volumes low. These factors contributed to a ‘perfect storm’ that resulted in a decline in production volume for the quarter that reached the lowest level for this report since 2014.”
–Marina Walsh, CMB, MBA’s Vice President of Industry Analysis