The recent rise in refinance applications has prompted economists at the Mortgage Bankers Association to boost their origination forecast for the second half of this year by over $90 billion.
MBA is estimating that lenders will originate nearly $517 billion in single-family loans during the second half, according to the new forecast issued Friday afternoon.
One month ago, MBA estimated originations would total just $426 billion during the third and fourth quarters combined.
MBA's application index shows refinance applications are up 10% over the past four weeks as the interest rate on 30-year fixed-rate mortgages has fallen to historic lows.
"Lower rates continue to boost refinance volumes above our earlier projections," said MBA chief economist Jay Brinkmann.
"For the market as a whole, we are now projecting total mortgage originations to be $1.1 trillion in 2011, up about $100 billion from our earlier projection," he said.
