Experian States Purchase Business Driving Sustained Recovery

A study of mortgage and housing data by Experian suggest a sustained market recovery is coming from home purchases.

There is a 10% increase in mortgage origination volume in 2Q13 over the same period in 2012, but production declined when compared with 1Q13, according to the Costa Mesa, Calif.-based company

For the quarter, there was $478 billion in loan originations, of which 36% were purchase money mortgages. This compares with $515 billion in 1Q13 (26% purchase) and $436 billion in 2Q12 (33% purchase).

Alan Ikemura, senior product manager and business consultant, Experian Decision Analytics, said, "The data from our IntelliView product indicates that despite a 7% decrease from the previous quarter in refinancing activity, home purchases grew by 20% year over year and 29% quarter over quarter, and this is where we can begin to see some of the real-estate recovery taking place."

Furthermore, nondistressed home sales have grown 32% on a year-over-year basis, while the share of distressed property sales has gone from 25% last year to 15% this year. Experian said combine this with 38% year-over-year growth in new home sales “and it is easy to see that the recovery could be coming from purchases.”