MBA Newslinks Archive

“Despite a healthy economy in 2018, the mortgage market suffered, as rate hikes hurt refinancing volume and low housing inventories priced some potential homebuyers out of the purchase market. For mortgage companies, there was the perfect storm of lower production revenues combined with rising expenses, which together contributed to the lowest net production income per loan since 2008.”–Marina Walsh, MBA Vice President of Industry Analysis.

“The spring buying season continues to be robust, with activity more than 7 percent higher than a year ago and up year-over-year for the ninth straight week”–Joel Kan, MBA Associate Vice President of Economic and Industry Forecasting.

“Validation of income is an important component of sound residential mortgage lending, while automation will greatly enhance the customer experience by reducing the time needed for a lender to determine how to most suitably serve their clients.”–From an MBA letter to Congress expressing support for legislation supporting reforms to the Internal Revenue Service.

“We do not see a significant depreciation, but simply a slowing down of most markets. The overall housing market is still expected to remain healthy as the fundamentals remain solid including historically low interest rates and a strong economy with low unemployment rates.”–Eric Fox, Vice President of Statistical and Economic Modeling with Veros, Santa Ana, Calif.

“Would-be buyers have decided to sit on the sidelines to see if more home inventory becomes available at the price-points where they’re shopping. The entire housing industry is watching to see what will happen in the coming months–whether owners and builders will provide the home inventory the buyers have been waiting for, amid the recent drop in interest rates.”–Bill Banfield, Executive Vice President of Capital Markets with Quicken Loans, Detroit.

“Solid fundamentals, growing property values, low interest rates and strong appetites from both borrowers and lenders all helped drive an 8 percent increase in recorded multifamily lending from a year ago.” –MBA Vice President of Commercial Real Estate Research Jamie Woodwell.

“Mortgage rates inched back up last week, but remain substantially lower than they were in the second half of last year. As quickly as refinance activity increased in recent weeks, it backed down again in response to the rise in rates. However, this spring’s lower borrowing costs, coupled with the strong job market, continue to push purchase application volume much higher.”–MBA Chief Economist Mike Fratantoni.

“With a strong job market, rising wages and lower mortgage rates, housing demand remains strong, as shown by the solid 7 percent growth in new home purchase applications in March. The confluence of declining mortgage rates with the spring buying season is supporting stronger housing demand and activity. Additionally, the drop in average loan size suggests that builders are tilting production to lower-priced homes, which continues to see the tightest inventories and strongest home-price growth.”–MBA Chief Economist Mike Fratantoni.

“The 196,000 jobs added to the U.S. economy in March reversed the slowdown in February, but more importantly, it showed that job creation overall remains robust. Additionally, we saw a bounce back in construction employment last month, with a decent gain of 16,000 jobs. These developments, along with lower mortgage rates and easing price growth, lay the foundation for steady housing demand as we move further into the spring home buying season.”–Joel Kan, MBA Associate Vice President of Economic and Industry Forecasting.

“This year, there are more homes for sale relative to the number of buyers, so a buyer is more likely to have their first offer accepted, while sellers are having to wait longer for their home to sell. It’s like a 1950s-era school dance with more boys than girls–the girls can quickly find a dancing partner, but more boys are waiting around with no one to dance with.”–Redfin chief economist Daryl Fairweather.