Purchase

While there were fewer new mortgages sought on a week-to-week basis, the index was higher than it has been during the same week in the last two years.

Point of sales providers are bringing improvements to their systems as loan officers look for ways to keep their pipelines active.

As home values surged at record highs, the latest month-to-month movements indicate price growth could start returning to a pre-pandemic pace, according to the Federal Housing Finance Agency.

But the 10-year Treasury yield began backing down after the weekend as investors reacted to turmoil in Europe.

Despite a 3% increase in new mortgages, overall applications dropped 2% on a consecutive-week basis due to a 5% decline in refis, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association.

These trends, in addition to the increase in appraisal contingency waivers, could add risk to mortgage lender businesses.

Also: How 9.3 million renters could enter the purchase market, lessons from Flagstar’s data breach and a possible 15-year plan for Fannie and Freddie.

Household formations, looser credit and an improved economy will overcome higher rates — and even the inventory shortage.

While the economic recovery and stimulus checks drove upward movement in purchases, it wasn’t enough to offset tumbling refinance activity.

Apart from saving more money, millennials prefer to spend their savings on a home down payment, Zonda economist Ali Wolf said.

“Builders continue to be confronted with rising input costs and a lack of available lots, causing them to slow production,” MBA’s Joel Kan said.

As more borrowers between 21 and 40 leveraged the historically low mortgage rates in January, the average age rose to a report high, according to ICE Mortgage Technology.

Mortgage rates surged 40 basis points since the start of the year as the economy improved.

The number of product offerings stayed at a level last seen in 2014 as slight gains in government and jumbo loans were offset by fewer conventional mortgages coming on the market.

The gap between those that considered it a good or bad time to buy narrowed 10 percentage points in February, the tightest spread since last April, Fannie Mae found.

After the coronavirus spurred a great migration in search of literal greener pastures, homebuyers are returning to cities with the end of the pandemic in sight, according to Redfin.

With the latest growth, interest rates spiked 37 basis points since the calendar flipped to 2021 alongside rising Treasury bond yields.

A slight lift in the purchase market paired with a surprising reversal in the size of the average loan, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association.

With the pandemic’s radical disruption of the housing market, values grew at the highest rate in eight years, according to CoreLogic.

The rush to refinance led to more errors in January and the shift to more-risky purchase apps will add to lenders' fraud concerns going forward.