ATTOM: Refinance Activity Up in Q4 Amid Continued Challenges

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ATTOM, Irvine, Calif., released its fourth-quarter 2024 U.S. Residential Property Mortgage Origination Report, showing that 1.64 million mortgages secured by residential property were issued in the United States during Q4.

That was down slightly from Q3–by 3%–but up 14% from Q4 2023.

Lenders issued $568 billion in residential mortgages in Q4, up 1.4% from Q3 and 26.3% from Q4 2023.

The number of residential refinance mortgages rose to 641,918, up from 603,324 in Q3 and from 500,877 in Q4 2023. This is the third quarterly gain in refinances in a row.

Refinance packages totaled $228.5 billion in the quarter, up 15.7% from Q3 and 46.7% from Q4 2023. However, that’s still well below the peak of $830.9 billion reached in 2021.

Refinancing activity increased quarterly in 73.8% and annually in 93.1% of the metro areas ATTOM analyzed.

HELOC lending declined quarterly but was up annually. In the quarter, 266,171 HELOCs were recorded, down from 301,622 in the previous quarter but up from 245,518 in Q4 2023.

“The inboxes of mortgage lenders emptied out a bit during the fall of 2024 following a couple of strong quarters that had pointed to a possible revival for the industry. Things slowed down as the market remained tight and the cost of borrowing went back, all during the usual annual home-buying lull,” said Rob Barber, CEO at ATTOM. “One small surprise emerged with refinancings increasing again despite rising interest rates. That may have happened because rates started the quarter at one of the more attractive points over the past few years, suggesting that homeowners were trying to get their mortgages reset before borrowing costs went back up.”

Lenders issued 244,984 FHA loans in Q4, or 14.9% of all residential property loans. Residential VA loans totaled 106,900, or 6.5% of all residential property loans originated in the quarter.