Fairfax County Refi Volume Slows

The refinance volume for Fairfax County, VA has slowed this summer even though rates remain low. Take a look at the chart below:

After reaching highs between October through March, things have slowed in the summer months. It will be interesting to see if this continues through the Fall.

Mortgage Refinance Boom! Is 2003 Here Again?

Today's Wall Street Journal, Amy Hoak talks about MBA's survey of mortgage applications for the prior week.  The survey showed a 12.8% rise mostly from mortgage refinance applications.

Recordings of mortgage deeds confirm a steady month over month rise in the number of refinance mortgage originations during 2009.  With fixed mortgage rates falling below 5 percent,  interest rates are below the rates of the 2003 refi boom.  We do not expect mortgage originations in this current refi boom to approach the levels seen in 2003.  During 2003 the refinances included large equity extractions.  This time around, most  mortgage refinances are used to replace existing mortgage debt at lower cost. Less "cash out" refinancing is taking place as compared with 2003. In other words. these refinances are real mortgage refinances. Homeowners who refinance are improving their cash flow and their net worth.

Using recordings of mortgage deeds of trust at county court houses, MortgageDataWeb ranked the top conventional refinance mortgage lenders and the top FHAVA (Government Insured) mortgage refinance lenders based upon data collected through July for 2009.

Conventional Refinance Mortgage Leading Lenders

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FHAVA Refinance Mortgage Leading Lenders

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It must be great to be a mortgage lender still standing in 2009!

Jumbo Size FHA Mortgages

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The chart above shows the monthly number of FHA mortgage originations having mortgage loan amounts of $417,000 and over(referred to as "jumbo FHA mortgages"). Several Observations:

• FHA is grabbing a larger share of the jumbo mortgage segment of the market.
• FHA jumbo refinance mortgages are outpacing FHA purchase mortgages
• The average mortgage for these jumbo FHA mortgages are now over $500,000
• The jumbo FHA are in the higher priced metropolitan areas and counties.
• The top 5 counties in the nation for FHA jumbo mortgages in 2009 are; 1) Los Angeles, CA; 2) Orange, CA; 3) San Diego, CA; 4) Kings (Brooklyn), NY; and 5) Queens, NY
• The county having the highest average jumbo FHA purchase mortgage was Marin, California ($595,000)
• The County having the highest average jumbo FHA refinance mortgage was Hunterdon, NJ ($448,000)

A one percent loan origination fee is not so bad after all!

New Record on FHA Refinance Mortgages in May

The chart shows monthly number of FHA refinance mortgage originations.

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FHA refinance mortgage originations reached a new monthly high in May. May also represents the sixth consecutive month of increases in the number of FHA refinance transactions. There were 83,458 FHA refinance mortgages in May and the total loan amounts were 16.48 billion dollars. This represents a 68 percent increase in the number of FHA refinance origination over the prior year. In May of 2008, there were 49,680 FHA refinance mortgages and a total refinance loan amount of 8.85 billion dollars. In April of this year there were 81,078 FHA refinance mortgages with total loan amounts of 15.79 billion dollars. The monthly increase over April 2009 was 3 percent.

FHA loan products gives mortgage lenders something to do!

Higher Average Loan Amounts on Conventional Refinance Mortgages

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There has been a spike in the average mortgage loan amount for conventional refinance mortgages. This makes sense based upon the record low interest rates for new mortgages and the need for homeowners having variable rate mortgages to replace them with less risky fixed rate mortgages. More home owner debt refinanced at current interest rates results in significant savings for the borrowers. Based upon data collected from municipal recordings from more than 500 counties nationwide, the average conventional refinance mortgage jumped passed $210,000 in 2009 from below $200,000 in 2008. Because of stricter underwriting requirements and depressed home values, fewer conventional refinance mortgages were originated than previous time periods during the past 10 years.