Mortgage rates

As mortgage rates dip lower and lower through home buying season, the rate of closing loan applications keeps climbing, according to Ellie Mae.

While low interest rates stimulated demand for housing in the first half of the year, affordability problems are holding back the purchase market, a First American survey of real estate professionals said.

Mortgage applications decreased by 3.4% this week, although refinance activity remained close to its 2019 high point, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association.

While single-family construction authorizations rose for the first time on a monthly basis in 2019, they trailed three-month and annual comparisons, signs of a continuing market slump, according to BuildFax.

New-home construction fell in May after an April reading that was stronger than initially reported, signaling stabilization in the market amid lower borrowing costs.

Sentiment among homebuilders unexpectedly posted the first decline this year, suggesting lower mortgage rates are failing to give the housing market a sustained boost amid property prices that remain out of reach for many buyers.

With mortgage rates expected to continue their recent slides over the next 18 months, in tandem with slowed economic growth, loan originations should see a jump through 2020, according to Fannie Mae.

Canadian home sales activity continued to rebound last month, suggesting the nation's housing market is improving after a sluggish start to the year.

Lower interest rates and slower price growth helped to boost mortgage applications to purchase newly constructed homes during May, the Mortgage Bankers Association said.

Mortgage rates remained unchanged as investors' concerns over U.S. foreign trade policy, which triggered the previous week's drop, were moderated, according to Freddie Mac.

Commercial and multifamily mortgage debt outstanding continued rising, aided by low mortgage rates and the steady incline of property values, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association.

With refinance activity rising to its highest level in three years, mortgage application volume increased 26.8% from one week earlier, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association.

Prepayment speeds for loans included in agency mortgage-backed securities were up approximately 20% both monthly and annually during May as the decline in interest rates boosted activity, according to Keefe, Bruyette & Woods.

Colorado Springs-area home prices soared to a second consecutive record high last month, as a steady demand on the part of buyers and a dearth of properties for sale helped to send housing costs higher.

The use of financing to buy fix and flip properties increased 35% annually by dollar volume to its highest level in nearly 12 years, according to Attom Data Solutions.

For the first time since 2012, home prices are falling in metro Orlando, new data and real estate experts say.

Mortgage rates fell to their lowest level since September 2017, with the 30-year down 17 basis points as worries over foreign trade policy continued to roil the markets, according to Freddie Mac.

Millennial homeowners took advantage of April's drop in mortgage rates by quickly securing refinance loans, which closed faster than purchases for the first time since March 2016, according to Ellie Mae.

The rate of annual home price appreciation sped up for the first time in over a year during April, affecting affordability at the low end of the market, according to CoreLogic.

Velocity Mortgage Capital's new loan for income-producing residential and small-balance commercial properties was designed to afford investors more payment certainty than traditional bank financing.