Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) is closing the first quarter of this year with an 80% spike in mortgage applications.
According to a Reuters report, the Charlotte, North Carolina-headquartered financial institution – the nation’s second largest bank – is experiencing more activity than it typically experiences during the first three months of a year.
“We’re seeing a steady increase in home buying activity, and it’s beyond what we would normally see from a seasonality perspective,” said Matt Vernon, head of consumer lending. “We’ve seen an 80% increase in our applications from January to now, and normally we would see around the 60% increase.”
Vernon added that last autumn’s decline in 10-year bond yields, a benchmark for mortgage rates, helped to bring more buyers back to the housing market – the yield fell to roughly 3.6% in September, the lowest since June 2023, which in turn drove down the 30-year mortgage rate to 6.1% by early October.
“We’re seeing more inventory come into the market, which ultimately leads to some stability and ultimately growth from a mortgage perspective,” Vernon said. “With rates remaining steady or slowly declining, we are seeing more demand from a buyer perspective than we saw in the previous years.”
Photo by Mike Mozart / Flickr Creative Commons
