News

According to the latest results from MBA’s Monthly Loan Monitoring Survey released this week, approximately 235,000 homeowners are in forbearance plans as of December 31, 2024. This level is substantially lower than the peak of almost 4.3 million homeowners in June 2020 and the 8.5 million borrowers who have been provided forbearance since […]

The job market strengthened in December, with payrolls increasing by 256,000 for the month and capping a year of faster-than-expected job gain; the average monthly number of jobs added per month was 186,000. The unemployment rate decreased to 4.1%, and wage growth decreased slightly to 3.9%. The December employment report […]

Yesterday as we said a final goodbye to President Jimmy Carter, I was thinking about the turbulent macroeconomic environment that prevailed in the years before, during, and after his administration. While it is difficult to make a true apples-to-apples comparison, several articles point to similarities between the 1978 to 1982 housing market […]

Annualized home price growth in the U.S. peaked between the second half of 2021 and first half of 2022 before decelerating through most of 2023 as rising mortgage rates and tight inventory contributed to a pullback in demand. However, these price trends varied considerably between geographies because of factors such […]

Based on the November 2024 jobs report, the unemployment rate is above 4.2 percent, the household survey again showed a large drop in employment, and more households reported spells of long-term unemployment, which is typically defined as being unemployed for 27 weeks or more. While we are not seeing a […]

As the industry begins to recap 2024 and looks ahead to 2025, reliable lender rankings are often of interest. In this week’s Chart of the Week, we feature GSE and FHA originator rankings that cover the first half of 2024. For the first two quarters of 2024, Rocket Mortgage was the […]

Independent mortgage banks (IMBs) and mortgage subsidiaries of chartered banks reported a simple average pre-tax net profit of 18 basis points, or $701, on each loan they originated in the third quarter of 2024, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA) newly released Quarterly Mortgage Bankers Performance Report. This marks the second […]

After a slow start to this year, borrowing and lending backed by commercial real estate properties picked up during the third quarter. Originations increased 59 percent compared to a year ago and increased 44 percent from the second quarter of 2024. Lower interest rates were a key driver of the […]

Both Treasury yields and mortgage rates declined from April to September 2024 in anticipation of the Federal Reserve’s first rate cut, influenced by the cooling job market and inflation moving towards the Fed’s 2 percent goal. The 10-year Treasury yield hit a low of 3.7 percent in mid-September and the […]

  Welcome to our latest issue of PRTNR Magazine. As we begin to wrap up the year, it’s the perfect time to reflect and strategize for the future. We’re kicking off the first of a two-part series, Five Essential Tips for Real Estate Agents: Preparing for Year-End, with expert insights on finishing the […]

As attendees from this year’s Annual Convention and Expo return to their respective states, many messages are top of mind. One priority is supply and affordability. While estimates of housing underproduction in the U.S. vary, a new report from Up for Growth puts the gap between the housing we have and the […]

In mid-September, the U.S. Census Bureau released its 2023 American Community Survey (ACS) one-year estimates. The ACS data, updated annually, provides detailed information about “jobs and occupations, educational attainment, veterans, whether people own or rent their homes,” and other information that allows public officials, planners, and entrepreneurs “to assess the past and […]

Mortgage applications to buy newly built homes have been seeing year-over-year growth since 2023, and in the MBA Builder Applications Survey results for September 2024, purchase applications were up 11 percent on an annual basis. New home purchase activity has outperformed existing home purchases in recent years because newly built homes coming […]

At the end of September 2024, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the U.S. Census Bureau released 2023 American Housing Survey (AHS) data. The AHS, updated every two years, is the “most comprehensive national housing survey in the United States,” and provides information about the quality and cost […]

The broker wholesale and non-delegated correspondent production channels accounted for a combined 20.5 percent of dollar volume originated in 2023 per MBA’s analyses of the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA) data. This is the highest combined share on record for these channels since 2018 when MBA first started tracking this […]

The FOMC lowered the target Fed Funds rate by 50 basis points at its September meeting and signaled that this is the first cut in a series that is expected to bring the Fed Funds rate down by about 2 percentage points by the end of 2025. This week’s chart […]

A total of 4,874 companies reported lending activity under the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA) in 2023, according to MBA’s analyses of the dataset. This year’s jump in numbers was due to a drop in the loan-volume reporting threshold, from 100 closed-end loans (or 200 open-end lines of credit) originated […]

The August employment report confirmed that the job market is cooling. With a 142,000 job increase in August and downward revisions of the June and July numbers, job growth has slowed to an average of 116,000 jobs over the past three months. The 2024 year-to-date average is 184,000 jobs per […]

Is the logjam in CRE transaction activity starting to break? Since the second half of 2022, commercial real estate sales transaction and mortgage origination volumes have been in the dumps. Originations in the second half of 2022 were more than a third lower than they had been a year earlier. […]

According to the latest results from MBA’s National Delinquency Survey (NDS) released this week, the overall delinquency rate for mortgage loans on one‐to‐four‐unit residential properties increased to a seasonally adjusted rate of 3.97 percent of all loans outstanding at the end of the second quarter of 2024. The delinquency rate was up 60 […]

Last week the Research Institute for Housing America (RIHA), MBA’s think tank, released a special report, Mortgage Design, Underwriting, and Interventions: Promoting Sustainable Homeownership, that looks at the lessons learned from the Great Financial Crisis, the Covid-19 pandemic, and other past episodes of default, to understand how to design a more robust […]

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For over two decades, the MBA and STRATMOR Peer Group Roundtable Program (PGR) has captured mortgage lender financial and operational metrics for benchmarking purposes. The PGR program provides this data for IMBs, banks, and credit unions, with lenders assigned to different peer groups based on their origination volumes and business models. Our 2023 PGR […]

MBA recently completed its 2024 Home Equity Lending Study (covering 2023 data) tracking trends in origination and servicing operations for home equity lines of credit (HELOCs) and home equity loans. While there are opportunities in this space given the substantial accumulated home equity of many existing homeowners, lenders cited challenges in originating […]

New York City has Local Law 97. Washington D.C. has its Building Energy Performance Standards (BEPS). Seattle has its Building Emissions Performance Standards (also BEPS). Denver has its Building Performance Policy (BPP). Efforts to reduce carbon emissions related to commercial real estate have gone local, with the Biden Administration establishing a National Building […]

Once again, the headline gain in nonfarm payroll employment does not tell the entire story. While the headline gain showed an increase of 206,000 jobs in June, government employment accounted for more than one-third of the gain, largely a function of increases in state and local jobs. Although June’s increase was above […]

Physicists have protons, neutrons, and electrons. Biologists have DNA and RNA. And economists have supply and demand—the building blocks upon which most of our understanding of markets rest. In commercial real estate (CRE), demand is driven by a variety of economic, demographic, and other factors that occasionally ebb but generally flow—increasing the […]

MBA’s annual Servicing Operations Study and Forum (SOSF) includes a deep-dive analysis and discussion of servicing costs, productivity, and portfolio characteristics for in‐house single-family servicers, representing about 60 percent of the single-family servicing market. Based on the most recent completed study cycle, fully-loaded servicing costs remained flat relative to the previous year at […]

The longstanding MBA and STRATMOR Peer Group Roundtables Program (“PGR”) recently wrapped up its Spring 2024 season for benchmarking lender performance across various production channels and peer groups. Based on a total sample of about sixty mortgage lenders, per-loan mortgage fulfillment expenses (processing, underwriting, closing, and other fulfillment costs) rose to new […]

Following the precipitous rise in interest rates and home prices in 2022 that starkly eroded affordability conditions for home buyers, the monthly cost burden of purchasing a new home continued to increase in 2023 and the first four months of 2024, albeit at a slower pace. MBA Weekly Applications Survey (WAS) data […]

This week’s Chart of the Week examines the spread between the 30-year fixed mortgage rate and 10-year Treasury yield. Between 1990 and 2021, the spread averaged around 170 basis points, but starting in 2022, this spread widened dramatically, exceeding 300 basis points in some weeks (the chart shows the data in monthly […]

According to MBA’s Q1 2024 Quarterly Mortgage Bankers Performance Report released this week, independent mortgage banks (IMBs) and mortgage subsidiaries of chartered banks reported a pre-tax net production loss of 25 basis points (or $645 per loan). While the first quarter of 2024 marks the eighth consecutive quarter of net production losses, these […]

According to the latest results from MBA’s National Delinquency Survey (NDS) released this week, the overall delinquency rate for mortgage loans on one‐to‐four‐unit residential properties increased slightly to a seasonally adjusted rate of 3.94 percent of all loans outstanding at the end of the first quarter of 2024. The delinquency rate was up […]

The Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) left the federal funds target unchanged at its May meeting, as incoming data regarding the strength of the economy and stubbornly high inflation have resulted in a shift in the expected timing of a first rate cut. In recent weeks, several Federal Reserve officials […]

With Earth Day this past week, it seems an opportune time to discuss the intersection of climate/sustainability issues and real estate finance. MBA has been leading on these issues for more than half a decade, helping members through our work related to research, policy, and practice. There are two central […]

The pandemic did a number on the housing market. Rental markets were already stretched from years of underdevelopment that followed the Great Financial Crisis, while a surge of millennials was just entering their formative renting years. The result was falling multifamily vacancy rates, which dropped from an all-time high of 13.1 […]

This week’s news has been around the Consumer Price Index (CPI) release showing that inflation was hotter than expected in March, which is likely to delay the Federal Reserve’s first rate cut in 2024 and contributed to a significant spike in the 10-year Treasury yield to over 4.5%. Rates were already moving […]

As we enter the spring home-buying season, existing-home sales activity remains suppressed by low levels of for-sale inventory. Available supply sits at just over one million units – a 2.9-month supply – and about half the historical average, based on data from the National Association of Realtors. Many homeowners are holding […]

This week’s Chart of the Week (COTW) shows MBA’s estimates of the distribution of CRE mortgage debt across capital sources and property types and is derived from a variety of public and private sources. As can be seen, CRE mortgage debt is not a monolithic market. Rather, it is made up of a broad […]

MBA recently released its latest Quarterly Performance Report for the fourth quarter of 2023. The total sample of 342 independent mortgage banks and mortgage subsidiaries of chartered banks reported per-tax net production losses of 73 basis points (or $2,109) on each loan they originated. This marks the seventh consecutive quarter of net production losses. In […]

This week Fed Chair Jay Powell testified to Congress that as “labor market tightness has eased and progress on inflation has continued, the risks to achieving our employment and inflation goals have been moving into better balance.” On Wednesday, the Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS) data from the U.S. Bureau […]

MBA Research recently analyzed repurchase and indemnification volume over a five-year period from the third quarter of 2018 through the third quarter of 2023. Data was collected from approximately 500 independent mortgage companies through the Mortgage Bankers’ Financial Reporting Form, completed by Fannie and Freddie seller-servicers and Ginnie Mae issuers. For this Chart […]

Commercial mortgages tend to be relatively long-lived, spreading maturities out over several years. A lack of transactions and other activity last year, coupled with built-in extension options and lender and servicer flexibility, has meant that many commercial mortgages that were set to mature in 2023 have been extended or otherwise […]

According to the latest results from MBA’s National Delinquency Survey (NDS), the overall delinquency rate for mortgage loans on one‐to‐four‐unit residential properties increased to a seasonally adjusted rate of 3.88 percent of all loans outstanding at the end of the fourth quarter of 2023. The delinquency rate was up 26 basis […]

With the arrival of a new year, new ideas and concepts come to life, paving the way for opportunities and innovative projects. In this issue, you’ll be introduced to a recent initiative undertaken by US REO Partners in Puerto Rico and tips to navigate the 2024 real estate landscape  You’ll also […]

MBA’s January 2024 forecast calls for mortgage origination dollar volume to increase 23 percent in 2024 to $2 trillion, with a 16 percent increase in purchase and a 50 percent increase in refinance volume (off an extremely low base in 2023). For mortgage lenders of all types and sizes, as well as […]

Ongoing challenges in commercial real estate markets pushed the delinquency rate on CRE-backed loans higher in the final three months of 2023. Delinquency rates jumped to 6.5 percent of balances for loans backed by office properties and to 6.1 percent for lodging-backed loans. Delinquencies for loans backed by retail properties remained […]

Even though many commercial real estate loans are long-lived, with terms of five, seven, ten, or more years, there’s a sense that the industry starts each year fresh. Sometimes, that means losing credit for all the deals and successes of the previous 12 months. Sometimes—like now—it means being able to put last […]

This morning’s report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics showed that the job market remained relatively strong in December, with growth in payrolls of 216,000 – just below the monthly average of 225,000 for full-year 2023. The unemployment rate was unchanged at 3.7% in December, but higher than what we saw in […]

This year has been tough for the housing market in terms of total originations. MBA estimates that this year’s total originations will be $1.64 trillion, the November FHA Annual Report to Congress reports that FHA forward originations were down by over 18% from FY 2022 to FY 2023, and MBA’s […]

Home price appreciation across many parts of the country remains strong, despite low levels of home sales and potential buyers still waiting in the wings for mortgage rates to decline further. The Federal Housing Finance Agency’s (FHFA) house price index report for the third quarter of 2023 showed that aggregate home price […]

Since March of 2023, a recurring set of questions has revolved around a) how conditions in commercial real estate (CRE) are affecting banks and b) how conditions with banks are affecting CRE. A variety of Charts of the Week (COTW)—including here, here, and here—have delved into the topic and we do so again today, digging […]

According to the latest results from MBA’s National Delinquency Survey (NDS) released today, the overall delinquency rate for mortgage loans on one‐to‐four‐unit residential properties increased to 3.62 percent of all loans outstanding at the end of the third quarter of 2023. The delinquency rate was 25 basis points higher than the series-low 3.37 […]

This week’s Chart of the Week highlights the October Employment Situation results released this morning. The job market continued to fare reasonably well in October but showed signs of weakening. Employers added 150,000 jobs over the month, but the October number was partially held down by a loss of 33,000 […]

MBA’s latest commercial real estate finance (CREF) forecast anticipates 2023 origination volumes ($442 billion) will come in just a bit more than half of what they were in 2022 ($816 billion). Perhaps more significantly, it anticipates a slower bounce-back in activity than previous forecasts, driven by “higher-for-longer” interest rates resulting not just from […]

This week at the MBA Annual Convention and Expo in Philadelphia, our Research & Economics team presented the October forecast, which showed that total mortgage origination volume is expected to increase to $1.95 trillion in 2024 from the $1.64 trillion expected in 2023. By loan count, total mortgage origination units are […]

This edition of PRTNR Magazine is a celebration of the many facets of this beautiful season and how they parallel the dynamics of the unpredictable real estate industry. As you read through the pages, we hope you’ll find inspiration and practical insights that can be applied to your own business ventures and […]

The monthly cost burden of purchasing a new home, as interest rates and house prices rose precipitously in 2022, has continued into 2023. Indeed, this week’s Weekly Applications Survey (WAS) release noted that the 30-year fixed mortgage rate is at 7.67%—the highest level since 2000—and the Federal Housing Finance Agency’s […]

Each quarter, members of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) submit their projections for various economic measures (i.e., real gross domestic product growth, the unemployment rate, inflation, and the federal funds rate). This month’s projections, shown in the Summary of Economic Projections (SEP), included 2026 for the first time. In this […]

The monthly cost burden of purchasing a new home, as interest rates and house prices rose precipitously in 2022, continued in the first few months of 2023. For example, MBA’s Purchase Applications Payment Index (PAPI) hit a new high in May. Since then, despite 30-year mortgage interest rates eclipsing 7%, […]

According to the July results from MBA’s Monthly Loan Monitoring Survey (LMS) released on Monday, the total number of loans now in forbearance decreased by 5 basis points from 0.44% of servicers’ portfolio volume in the prior month to 0.39% as of July 31, 2023. Over the past three years, the forbearance rate […]

We’ve teamed up with some well-respected industry leaders to provide an amazing afternoon of training.  The focus will be on the latest trends, strategies, and best practices in the REO space. This is a great opportunity to connect with peers and colleagues and we look forward to you joining us! […]

This week, MBA Research released the second quarter results of its Quarterly Mortgage Bankers Performance Report (QPR). The sample of 344 independent mortgage banks (IMBs) and bank subsidiaries reported an average pre-tax net loss of $534 on each loan they originated in the second quarter of 2023. While improved from the reported […]

Yesterday, MBA released the latest results from its National Delinquency Survey (NDS ). Earlier in the week, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York’s Center for Microeconomic Data issued its latest Quarterly Report on Household Debt and Credit. According to the NDS, the overall delinquency rate for mortgage loans on one‐to‐four‐unit residential properties fell […]

Loans originated for the purchase of a home grew to an average size of $371,000 in 2022, from $344,000 in 2021, according to MBA’s analyses of the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA) dataset. This week’s Chart of the Week explores differences in average home purchase loan sizes by company type, where company […]

The divergence between existing and new home sales activity continues to grow. This week’s Chart of the Week compares data from our Builder Applications Survey (BAS), which captures home purchase applications on newly constructed homes taken by mortgage companies affiliated with home builders, and the Weekly Applications Survey (WAS), which covers a broader sample […]

In May 2023, MBA Research released the first quarter results of its Quarterly Mortgage Bankers Performance Report (QPR). Total loan production expenses – commissions, compensation, occupancy, equipment, and other production expenses and corporate allocations – increased to a study-high of $13,171 per loan in the first quarter, up from $12,450 per loan […]

This week, the U.S. Census Bureau released updated construction spending survey data (https://www.census.gov/construction/c30/current/index.html). Also referred to as the Value of Construction Put in Place (VIP), the survey covers all private residential construction and improvements, non-residential construction, and public construction. Total construction spending in the U.S. increased by 0.9% from April […]

In commercial real estate (CRE), all eyes remain on the office market. That is despite the fact that multifamily mortgage debt—accounting for $2.0 trillion of the $4.6 trillion of total outstanding—is almost three times as large and office accounts for just 17 percent of total CRE debt. But office is the […]

2020 and 2021 were record-setting years with $4.11 trillion and $4.44 trillion in originations respectively, as the industry experienced record low mortgage rates and home price appreciation soared across the country. Indeed, 2021 set records for purchase ($1.86 trillion) and refinance originations ($2.57 trillion). The last time the mortgage industry […]

According to data from MBA’s May 2023 Mortgage Credit Availability Index (MCAI), we saw the third consecutive month of declining credit availability, as the industry continued to see more consolidation and reduced capacity as a result of the tougher market. These factors brought the MCAI to its lowest level since January […]

National house price growth has cooled drastically since reaching a high of 18.5 percent in the third quarter of 2021, with first quarter 2023 house price appreciation coming in at 4.3 percent. These are annual or four quarter percent changes, based on the Federal Housing Finance Agency’s (FHFA) Purchase-Only House […]

Ongoing stress caused by higher interest rates, uncertainty around property values and questions about fundamentals in some property markets are beginning to show up in commercial mortgage delinquency rates. Given differences in their structures, each major capital source tracks delinquencies slightly differently – making them incomparable on an absolute level.  Even […]

This week, MBA released its April Purchase Applications Payment Index (PAPI), which revealed that affordability continued to erode in the first four months of 2023. PAPI, which measures how new purchase mortgage payments vary across time relative to income, increased 29.2% between December 2021 and December 2022 as 30-year fixed-rate mortgage […]

his week, MBA released the first quarter results of its Quarterly Mortgage Bankers Performance Report (QPR). The first quarter of 2023 marks the fourth consecutive quarter of net production losses for the independent mortgage bankers (IMBs) included in this report. After reaching a study-low in the fourth quarter of 2022, pre-tax net […]

According to the Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA) National Delinquency Survey, released this week, the delinquency rate for mortgage loans on one‐to‐four‐unit residential properties fell to a seasonally adjusted rate of 3.56 percent of all loans outstanding at the end of the first quarter of 2023. The delinquency rate was down 40 basis […]

MBA Research conducts a series of benchmarking programs focused on mortgage profitability, revenue, cost, product mix, and productivity. Last month, we released results from our MBA Annual Performance Report and we regularly post data from our MBA Quarterly Performance Reports. These reports are representative of independent mortgage companies (IMBs) and a handful of […]

There’s a lot going on in the commercial real estate markets. Changes in property fundamentals, interest rates, property values, and more have led to a marked slowdown in transaction activity—with Q1 sales activity down 56 percent from a year earlier. MBA’s Q1 commercial mortgage delinquency survey showed a 110-basis point increase in […]

According to data from MBA’s Builder Applications Survey, applications taken by home builder affiliate mortgage lenders in March for the purchase of new homes increased 10% month-over-month and were up slightly from a year ago. Low for-sale inventory continues to constrain home sales, along with mortgage rates that remain above 6%. […]

MBA’s forecast calls for a gradual recovery in home purchase activity in the second half of 2023, driven by some catch-up buying from 2022 when mortgage rates surged and by younger age cohorts entering homeownership. However, this recovery will be dependent on affordability conditions improving – home price growth moderating, […]

According to MBA’s Annual Mortgage Bankers Performance Report released this week, volume for Independent Mortgage Banks (IMBs) and mortgage subsidiaries of chartered banks declined by 50% from an average of 16,590 loans per company in 2021 to 8,371 loans per company in 2022. This decline is close to MBA’s industry loan count estimates […]

MBA’s Purchase Applications Payment Index (PAPI) data show that the steep rise in interest rates dominated moderating mortgage application loan amounts and in 2022 and early 2023, indicating eroded affordability for new homebuyers. Similarly, affordability for renters declined with U.S. Census Bureau data showing that median asking rents jumped by over 9.5% […]

There is, not inappropriately, a great deal of attention being paid to commercial real estate (CRE) right now. And with that attention comes a lot of different questions and answers—with many answers varying depending on how one defines things. One reference that we have been getting a lot of questions about […]

Independent mortgage banks (IMBs) and mortgage subsidiaries of chartered banks reported a net loss of $2,812 on each loan they originated in the fourth quarter of 2022, down from a reported loss of $624 per loan in the third quarter of 2022, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA) newly […]

At MBA’s CREF Convention in San Diego last month, we released the results of our annual survey of upcoming commercial and multifamily mortgage maturities. The survey collects information directly from loan servicers on when the loans they service mature. As in past years, the numbers we released covered loans held by non-bank […]

This week, MBA held its 2023 Servicing Solutions Conference and Expo in Orlando, Florida.  The conference brought together servicing executives, operations managers, service providers, policymakers, and others. There were several themes discussed at the conference, which included housing affordability challenges (helped by the FHA’s welcomed announcement of a mortgage insurance premium reduction) and the […]

According to MBA’s latest Warehouse Lending Survey, warehouse lenders – as of the end of fourth-quarter 2022 – reported an average outstanding balance of $15.4 million per active client on their warehouse lines for first mortgages held for sale. This marks the fifth consecutive quarterly decline in per-client outstandings and the […]

This week the Research Institute for Housing America (RIHA), MBA’s think tank, released the first volume of A Collection of Essays on Climate Risk and the Housing Market that examines various aspects of how climate risk is impacting housing markets (as summarized in this week’s chart that replicates Exhibit 1 from the […]

At the end of next week, many of us will begin our annual migration to San Diego and to MBA’s Commercial/Multifamily Finance Convention & Expo (CREF23). There will be no lack of topics to discuss—from return to the office, to the return of retail, and interest in cap rates to interest rate caps. […]

In yesterday’s Purchase Applications Payment Index (PAPI) release, MBA Research introduced a new measure—the Builders’ Purchase Applications Payment Index (BPAPI). While PAPI uses MBA’s Weekly Applications Survey (WAS) purchase data to calculate mortgage payments, BPAPI uses analogous MBA Builder Applications Survey (BAS) data to create an index that measures how new mortgage payments vary across […]

Welcome to our January issue of PRTNR Magazine!  Are you still looking to set some goals for 2023?  You’ll want to read up on setting SMART goals this year. Check out page 22 for some next-level tips and strategies.  We are also very excited to share about a new US REO Partners’ membership category,  the Associate […]

This week’s MBA Chart of the Week captures data on new residential construction market and the state of new single-family home sales. Data on home sales, housing starts, and purchase applications are shown as year-over-year percent changes, while the National Association of Home Builders’ (NAHB) Housing Market Index (HMI) is an index level. December […]

This week’s MBA Chart of the Week looks at the spread of mortgage rates relative to Treasury yields. This has been one of the more puzzling aspects of the current environment and a contributor to the rapid rise in mortgage rates over the past year. This spread has historically averaged around 180 […]

In an effort to increase transparency after the Great Recession, one of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) communication initiatives under Chairman Bernanke was to publish individual member’s assessments of the economy in the Summary of Economic Projections (SEP). The SEP also includes each participant’s projection, based on information available […]

Housing costs are—appropriately—getting a lot of attention. Part of that attention stems from affordability challenges heightened by recent rapid increases in home prices, interest rates, and rents. Another part stems from the fact that shelter costs are such a significant driver of measures of inflation, and thus a key motivator […]

Earlier this week, the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) announced the conforming loan limits for mortgages eligible to be acquired by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in 2023. The 2023 loan limit for one-unit properties for most of the country will be $726,200, an increase of $79,000 from $647,200 in 2022. The change […]

Thanks to a very tight labor market and technological advances, hybrid work reigns two and a half years after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, with employees at many companies coming into the office a few days a week. The extent to which this trend will continue – and what […]

The biennial American Housing Survey (AHS), the most comprehensive national housing survey in the United States, was released earlier this year by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). The survey provides detailed data on housing migration (where at least one member of the respondent’s household moved during the […]

Last week, MBA released its September Purchase Applications Payment Index (PAPI) data, which revealed that homebuyer affordability took a large hit in September, with the 75-basis-point jump in mortgage rates leading to the typical homebuyer’s monthly payment rising $102 to $1,941—further reducing the purchasing power of potential homebuyers. The median monthly payment […]

This week, MBA Research & Economics released its latest economic and mortgage market forecast at the MBA Annual Convention in Nashville. Based on our October forecast, total mortgage origination volume is expected to decline to $2.05 trillion in 2023 from an estimated $2.26 trillion in 2022. An economic recession, tighter financial conditions, […]

According to MBA’s Monthly Loan Monitoring Survey released this week, the share of loans in forbearance dropped slightly to 0.69 percent of servicers’ portfolio volume as of September 30, 2022, from 0.72 percent the prior month. About 345,000 homeowners are still in forbearance plans, after reaching a peak of almost 4.3 […]

Inside this Fall issue of PRTNR Magazine, you’ll find highlights from our US REO Partners sponsored events at The Five Star Conference & Expo from our well-attended Training Session and Client Meet & Greet to our Annual Client Dinner & Charity Auction.  In addition, you won’t want to miss the […]

This week, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics released its September Consumer Price Index (CPI). Inflation as measured by the CPI grew by 8.2 percent in September 2022, compared to a year ago. While this reading was lower than its recent peak of 9.1 percent in June 2022, these growth […]

At the end of September 2022, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the U.S. Census Bureau released 2021 American Housing Survey (AHS) summary table estimates in the AHS Table Creator and 2021 AHS National and Metro Public Use File microdata. The AHS, last updated with 2019 data, is […]

This week the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) released its Purchase-Only House Price Index (HPI) for July 2022. The HPI was down 0.6% from the previous month, although up 13.9% from July 2021. The HPI has increased by almost 120% since March 2012 (yellow line), and is up 39% since […]

In response to inflation continuing to run well above its target of 2%, the Federal Reserve this week again raised the federal funds target by 75 basis points. Now at 3%, the rate is above what most FOMC members consider to be the long-term level and should be effective in […]

The housing market continues to face challenges from economic uncertainty, high home-price growth, and volatile mortgage rates. MBA’s Weekly Applications Survey data show that overall mortgage application activity continues to trend lower, as refinances have quickly dried up due to rates rising throughout the year and hitting the 6-percent mark for the first […]

This week’s MBA Chart of the Week highlights one of the questions related to housing costs and inflation: If home price appreciation (HPA) and rent growth have been in double digits in the last few quarters—as highlighted by the (blue lined) Zillow Observed Rent Index (ZORI) in the chart—why is the shelter […]

Homebuyer demand has faltered this summer, as lingering economic uncertainty, high inflation, and still-high mortgage rates caused many prospective buyers to delay their home search. Indeed, mortgage applications are at a 22-year low, held down by not only significantly reduced refinancing demand but also weak home purchase activity. MBA‘s latest economic […]

Independent mortgage banks and mortgage subsidiaries of chartered banks reported losses of 5 basis points ($82 per loan) in the second quarter of 2022, according to MBA’s Quarterly Mortgage Bankers Performance Report released this week. Average production volume in the second quarter was $705 million per company, down from $808 million […]

This week, MBA Research released second quarter of 2022 results of its National Delinquency Survey (NDS). The delinquency rate for mortgage loans on one-to-four-unit residential properties was 3.64 percent – the lowest level since MBA’s survey began in 1979 and down 47 basis points from first-quarter 2022 and 183 basis points from the […]

The national median mortgage payment was $1,893 in June, according to the latest Purchase Applications Payment Index (PAPI) release. While it held steady over the second quarter of 2022 (from $1,889 and $1,897 in April and May), it was up 9.1% from the end of the first quarter, and $510 (36.9%) […]

According to MBA’s Monthly Loan Monitoring Survey, the share of loans in forbearance dropped slightly to 0.81 percent of servicers’ portfolio volume as of June 30, 2022, from 0.85 percent the prior month. Only about 404,000 homeowners are still in forbearance plans, after reaching a peak of almost 4.3 million homeowners in […]

A total of 4,195 companies reported lending activity under the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA) in 2021, according to MBA’s own analyses of the dataset. Company types are defined by primary regulator and balance sheet assets, with large depositories holding assets of $10 billion or more. Large depositories have always […]

Interested in investing, giving and insights on the current and forecasted market conditions? Then this issue of PRTNR Magazine is for YOU! You’ll also find information on our upcoming US REO Partners Annual Client Dinner and Charity Auction in September and write-ups from our member-only monthly series, Coffee with Clients.

MBA’s annual Servicing Operations Study and Forum includes a deep-dive analysis and discussion of servicing costs, productivity, portfolio activity, and operational metrics for in‐house servicers. This week’s MBA Chart of the Week shows 2021 fully-loaded servicing costs, which include three components: direct expenses; unreimbursed foreclosure, REO and other default costs; and corporate administration costs. […]

Based on the most recent MBA forecast, mortgage originations are expected to drop to $2.4 trillion (or 6.7 million loans) in 2022 from $4.0 trillion (or 11.3 million loans) in 2021. This rapid shift in industry volume, after two years of record-setting levels not seen since 2003, has forced mortgage companies […]

This week the Research Institute for Housing America (RIHA), MBA’s think tank, released a special report, Who Will Buy the Baby Boomers’ Homes When They Leave Them?, authored by Gary Engelhardt of Syracuse University. The report examines population aging, mortality, and the future of the housing market. In 2019, there were […]

The national median mortgage payment was $1,897 in May, a slight increase from $1,889 in April and $572 higher than in May 2021, according to this week’s Purchase Applications Payment Index (PAPI) release. Payments have increased $513 (37.1%) in the first five months of the year, consistent with still-elevated loan sizes, […]

The Federal Reserve is racing to catch up to economic events, announcing a 75-basis-point increase in the federal funds rate and signaling more increases following this week’s FOMC meeting. The FOMC’s median projection for the federal funds rate now shows a year-end 2022 rate of around 3.4%, compared to the […]

Commercial and multifamily real estate – after years of strong and steady growth – is in a period of transition, driven by changes in the space, equity and debt markets. In terms of space markets, each property type is in a different place. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, vacancy […]

In March, MBA released its inaugural, monthly Purchase Applications Payment Index (PAPI) – an affordability index that measures how new fixed-rate 30-year purchase mortgage payments vary across time relative to income. The third PAPI release on May 26 – based on April MBA Weekly Applications Survey (WAS) data – gives us a […]

MBA released this week its latest Quarterly Performance Report for the first quarter of 2022. The total sample of 366 independent mortgage banks and mortgage subsidiaries of chartered banks earned an average pre-tax production profit of 5 basis points (or $223) on each loan they originated – the lowest level since the fourth quarter […]

Housing markets are tight. Multifamily developers are responding. Developers are currently building 800,000 new homes in buildings with 5 or more units – the most since the mid-1970s – and will put-in-place $100 billion of multifamily housing construction this year, a new record. In recent months, MBA’s Chart of the Week has […]

The Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA) National Delinquency Survey was released this week, covering national and state delinquencies through the first quarter of 2022. The delinquency rate for mortgage loans on one‐to‐four‐unit residential properties fell to a seasonally adjusted rate of 4.11 percent of all loans outstanding at the end of the first quarter of […]

According to the inaugural 2021 Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) Study, conducted by McLagan and recommended by Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA), participating mortgage firms – both residential and commercial/multifamily – had varied policies, practices and initiatives to further racial and gender equality within their organizations. This week’s MBA Chart of the Week shows […]

Last week, MBA released its 2021 Annual Performance Report. The total sample of 273 independent mortgage banks (IMBs) and subsidiaries of banks employed an average of 554 mortgage production employees over the course of 2021. This was the highest average production employee count since the start of the report in 2008. […]

The Current Population Survey (CPS), sponsored jointly by the U.S. Census Bureau and the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, includes an Annual Social and Economic Supplement (ASEC) conducted every March. The ASEC provides details on geographic mobility and migration over the last year—including information on the types of moves and […]

The release of MBA’s Commercial Real Estate/Multifamily Finance Firms – Annual Origination Rankings annual report presents a comprehensive set of listings of commercial/multifamily mortgage originators, their volumes and the different roles they play. The report presents origination volumes in more than 140 categories, including by role, by investor group, by property type, […]

On March 24, MBA released its inaugural, monthly Purchase Applications Payment Index (PAPI) – an affordability index that measures how new fixed-rate 30-year purchase mortgage payments vary across time relative to income. Every month, MBA Research will use MBA Weekly Applications Survey (WAS) payment data, together with U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ […]

Inflation as measured by the Consumer Price Index (CPI) reached an annual rate of almost 8% in February. Over the past 12 months, inflation has increased steadily from less than 2% to 7.9%, compared to an average just under 2% in the five years prior. Supply chain disruptions and goods […]

House price appreciation (HPA) continued to rise rapidly in the fourth quarter of 2021. The Federal Housing Finance Agency’s (FHFA) Purchase Only House Price Index increased by 17.5% from the fourth quarter of 2020, and it grew by over 27% in Idaho, Utah, and Arizona. There have been various explanations […]

On Thursday, February 24, Russian troops invaded Ukraine in an unprovoked assault on a peaceful neighbor. Through ground, sea, and air attacks, the Russian military since then has killed countless Ukrainian citizens and kicked off a massive dislocation as more than a million Ukrainians seek refuge in neighboring countries while millions […]

This past week in Orlando, MBA held its annual Servicing Solutions Conference and Expo, attended by over 1,300 industry professionals. Among the major topics weighing on mortgage servicers were servicing technology, servicing transfers, post-forbearance workouts, customer complaints, fair servicing and regulatory compliance, and borrower communications, among others. In this week’s MBA Chart of […]

The average usage level of first-mortgage warehouse lines – the percentage of outstanding borrowings to warehouse facility limits – fell for the sixth consecutive quarter to 38% as of the end of the fourth quarter of 2021, according to MBA’s quarterly Warehouse Lending Survey. This latest result marks the lowest usage […]

Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA) National Delinquency Survey – covering national and state delinquencies through the fourth quarter of 2021 – was released this week. The delinquency rate for mortgage loans on one‐to‐four‐unit residential properties fell to a seasonally adjusted rate of 4.65 percent of all loans outstanding at the end of 2021. The […]