Eye On Housing
Author Archives
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Consumer Credit Increases in March
The latest data from the Federal Reserve Board’s G.19 Consumer Credit Report show an increase in consumer credit at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.3% during the first quarter of 2019. During this time, revolving credit1 increased by 1.4% and nonrevolving credit2 increased by 5.3%. At the end of the first quarter, total outstanding consumer credit totaled $4.1 trillion…. Read More ›
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Conventional Mortgages Outpace Government Mortgages for Purchase
The latest data from the Mortgage Bankers Association’s Weekly Application Survey for the week ending on April 19 show a decrease in purchasing and refinancing activities, with refinancing decreasing for the third consecutive week. On a seasonally adjusted basis, refinancing activity decreased by 11%. March showed a strong rally in purchasing activity, evidenced by the decrease in rates and increase… Read More ›
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Nonrevolving Consumer Credit Decelerates in February
The current G.19 Federal Reserve Consumer Credit report has been updated to show the preliminary figures for February 2019 consumer credit. In February, consumer credit increased at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.5%. Revolving1 credit increased at an annual rate of 3.3%, while nonrevolving2 credit increased at an annual rate of 5%. In the previous month, nonrevolving debt grew… Read More ›
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Refinancing Activity Soars Due to Rate Declines
Amid growing concerns about housing affordability, the latest data from the Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA) weekly mortgage applications survey show a surge in home refinancing, a week-to-week increase of 39% on a seasonally adjusted basis. The increase is contemporaneous with the fourth consecutive week of mortgage rates’ declining. Despite the widespread decrease in mortgage rates, changes in purchasing activity (i.e.,… Read More ›
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Equity Rises for U.S. Homeowners
The fourth quarter of 2018 Federal Reserve’s Flow of Funds report shows the market value of all owner-occupied residential real estate. A previous post referred to banks bracing for a tight lending environment in 2019, per the Senior Loan Officer Opinion Survey, with banks expecting to tighten standards for all borrowers, including homeowners. However, homeowners can draw from their equity built… Read More ›
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Consumer Credit Increases in January 2019
On a seasonally adjusted, annual basis, the latest data from the Federal Reserve Board’s G.19 Consumer Credit report show that all non-mortgage consumer credit, increased at 5% in January 2019 from the previous month, of which revolving1 and nonrevolving debt2 increased 2.9% and 5.9%, respectively. As of January 2019, consumer credit totaled $4.0 trillion, $1.1 trillion of which was revolving… Read More ›
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Serious Delinquency Rate Continues its Decline
The most recent results of the National Delinquency Survey produced by the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) show that, as of the 4th quarter of 2018, mortgage servicers serviced 29.9 million non-government-insured mortgages, also known as conventional mortgages. Beginning with the first quarter of 2017, the MBA had discontinued its long-held classification of conventional loans into the prime and subprime categories,… Read More ›
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Interest Rates on Consumer Credit Increase by the End of 2018
The latest data from the Federal Reserve Board’s G.19 Consumer Credit report show that all non-mortgage consumer credit, i.e., excluding loans secured by real estate, increased 5.0% in December, with revolving and nonrevolving credit increasing 2.0% and 6.0%, respectively. The current outstanding levels of debt, on a seasonally adjusted basis, are $1.04 trillion for revolving debt and $2.97 trillion for… Read More ›
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U.S. Banks Report Expectations of Tightening Standards on Loans in 2019
Latest data from the Federal Reserve Board’s quarterly Senior Loan Officer Opinion Survey (SLOOS) show recent lending policies of eighty large domestic banks and twenty-four U.S. branches and agencies of foreign banks. The survey’s respondents reported, on the whole, that they tightened standards on Commercial Real Estate (CRE) loans and did not change the standards applied to Commercial and Industrial… Read More ›
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Student Loans Crowding Out Home Purchases
Student and auto loans have historically dominated non-mortgage, non-revolving credit, as seen in the Federal Reserve’s G.19 Consumer Credit report. As of the third quarter of 2018, student loan debt totaled $1.6 trillion. As student-loan debt has historically made up the majority of non-mortgage, non-revolving credit, homeownership is the opportunity cost for its accumulation. In January 2019, as part of its… Read More ›