Mortgage lending nosedives, dropping 55% since last year

Source: Warwick Beacon — 

After a wild couple of years in the housing market, things may finally be starting to cool.

Fewer people took out mortgages at the end of last year, as sky-high home prices, costly mortgage rates, and consumer inflation limited buying power and caused uncertainty in the market.

Lenders originated 1.52 million mortgages in the fourth quarter of 2022, down 55% from a year ago to the lowest level since the first quarter of 2014.

Stacker cited data from ATTOM, a property data provider, to show how mortgage lending slumped in the fourth quarter of 2022 and which metropolitan areas were the most affected.