Optimism abounds in Fannie Mae's survey of mortgage lenders for the second quarter of 2015.
"This quarter's results showed that the growing optimism of lenders has been rewarded," said Fannie Mae senior vice president and chief economist Doug Duncan in a release.
"The share of lenders reporting increased purchase mortgage demand over the prior three months reached a survey high for both GSE-eligible and government loans."
The government-sponsored enterprise in its Mortgage Lender Sentiment Survey said that optimism over consumer demand for mortgages had risen across the board from last quarter as 77% of lenders said demand for GSE-eligible loans rose over the last three months, 25 percentage points more than last month's survey.
Ten percent more institutions also said demand for non-GSE loans rose over the last three months, putting the number who saw consumer demand rise up to 62%, and the percentage of those surveyed who saw increased demand for government loans during the same period rose 20 percentage points to 65%.
However, the share of institutions that thought consumer demand for mortgages would continue to rise over the next three months actually dropped for each category of mortgage: 65% for GSE-eligible loans, down six percentage points from the last quarter, 54% for non-GSE loans, down nine percentage points from the last survey, and 56% for government loans, down a similar nine percentage points from the last survey. Still, the vast majority of those in the mortgage market thought that demand would either increase or stay level for each category of mortgage.
"The results, when taken together with the continued positive trend in consumer attitudes shown in the recently released National Housing Survey, reinforce an increasingly optimistic outlook for housing in 2015, consistent with our forecast. We expect a continued housing expansion in 2015 after an uneven and disappointing 2014," Duncan said in the release.
