Origination

The monthly mortgage payment for homes in the median asking price range hit a new high, up 31% from before the pandemic, according to Redfin.

Sales of previously owned homes unexpectedly increased to a one-year high as buyers rushed in ahead of a surge in mortgage rates, further depleting tight inventories to a record low.

The 2022 origination outlook was dropped by $172 billion and for 2023, economists at the government-sponsored enterprise made a $226 billion reduction.

Despite a slowing in the private-label securitization market in January, lenders and investors are expecting a strong year for outside-the-box originations and their secondary market sales.

New U.S. home construction fell in January for the first time in four months, indicating pandemic-related labor absences and winter weather tempered recent progress on building activity.

The 30-year average increased by 23 basis points on inflation, geopolitical news.

Minutes of the Jan. 25-26 Federal Open Market Committee meeting, released Wednesday, “[tell] us that they will raise the fed funds rate in March, and that a 50 basis point rate hike is in play,” said Gus Faucher, chief economist for PNC Financial Services Group.

A rise in reverse occupancy fraud is contributing to the uptick, a CoreLogic report found.

The buyers spent an average of $433K per house and paid cash in three of every four purchases, Redfin reported.

Credit availability also tightened in January, contributing to early 2022’s lending slowdown, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association.