Residential Fundings Fell in 1Q but Falling Rates Offer Hope

Residential lenders originated $384 billion of new one- to four-family loans in the first quarter, a 20% decline from the same period a year earlier, according to preliminary survey figures compiled by National Mortgage News and the Quarterly Data Report. Almost every single funder reporting to NMN showed a double digit percentage decline in production. Based on the current run-rate, originations will total $1.5 trillion this year, compared to $1.9 trillion in 2009. But some housing analysts, such as David Olson of Access Research, Columbia, Md., believe fundings could be as paltry as $1.2 trillion, maybe lower. However, with Thursday's stock market crash (and subsequent, partial recovery), bond yields fell, dragging down mortgage rates and spurring talk of more refinancings. (For the full story see the Monday print edition of NMN.)