ATTOM: Mortgage Originations Fall in Q1

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ATTOM, Irvine, Calif., released its Q1 2025 U.S. Residential Property Mortgage Origination Report, highlighting that there were 1.4 million mortgages secured by residential property in the period. That’s a 14% drop from Q4 2024.

The number of new home financing deals has fallen below pre-pandemic levels, ATTOM said. There was a 20% drop in home purchase loans, down from 738,675 in Q4 to 593,111 in Q1.

The number of properties with refinances fell by 12% from Q4 and home equity lines of credit fell 5%.

The total dollar value of loans was down 18% from $582 billion Q4 to $478 billion in Q1 2025–that means there was not only a decline in borrowers but also a decline in the average loan amount, as refinances and HELOCs grow in comparison to purchase loans.

The number of issued mortgages fell in 93.3% of the 193 metropolitan statistical areas in ATTOM’s analysis that fit the firm’s criteria for analysis.

“The red-hot housing market we’ve seen over the last few years meant that most home loans were going toward new purchases, but that appears to be changing,” said Rob Barber, CEO at ATTOM. “Rather than borrowing money to buy a new property, the data shows homeowners are increasingly looking to restructure their existing mortgages or borrow equity from their homes to cover other expenses. If the current trend continues, mortgage refinancing deals will soon make up the biggest share of the home loan market.”

Lenders issued 227,159 Federal Housing Administration loans, down 8.8% from Q4. And, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs loans fell to 78,862, down 27.2% from Q4.