Eye On Housing
The Mortgage Bankers’ Association’s latest Weekly Application Survey, for the week ending September 27, 2019, showed sharp increases in the year-over-year gains in purchasing and refinancing activity of all mortgages, of 9.6% and 132.9%, respectively (seasonally adjusted). Throughout most of the current year since mid-March, refinancing activity on a year-over-year basis has been particularly strong this year, holding steady from late June through mid-August, and then surging in the fall. In the latest week, the 30-year, fixed-rate mortgage decreased by 9 basis points to 3.64%, consistent with the downward movement of Treasury yields.
As shown above, all mortgage activity, on a year-over-year, seasonally adjusted basis started in the negative territory at the beginning of 2019 but picked up quickly through the rest of the year, owing most of it to refinancing activity. Per the latest Weekly Application Survey’s report, the year-over-year gain in all mortgage activity stands at 57.1%. The share of refinancing activity, in turn, increased to 58.0% of total applications from 54.9% the previous week. Total market size of home refinances and purchases increased by 5,200 applications from the previous week to 326,700 applications, on a non-seasonally adjusted basis.
It appears that lenders have learned nothing from the Housing Crash as they continue to urge borrowers to use their homes as a piggy bank. Telling consumers it is good to pay off credit cards and other short-term debt with long-term mortgage debt is cringe worthy and shows that far too many suffer from the sin of greed.