A total of 1.64 million mortgages for residential properties were issued during the fourth quarter of 2024, according to new data from ATTOM. This represents a 3% drop from the third quarter, but it was also a 14% spike from the fourth quarter of 2023.
ATTOM noted that lending to homebuyers dropped by 7.5% from the third to the fourth quarter to about 732,000 while the number of home equity credit lines dropped by 11.6% to roughly 267,000. Mortgage rollovers increased for the third consecutive quarter, growing 6.4% to roughly 642,000.
The decline in overall fourth-quarter lending activity was primarily attributed to the decline in the number of mortgages issued to homebuyers, which dropped to 731,517. However, the number of residential refinance mortgages issued by lenders climbed to 641,918, despite elevated mortgage rates. That was up from 603,324 in the prior three-month period and by 28.2% from 500,877 in the fourth quarter of 2023. ATTOM noted this marked the third quarterly gain in a row, reaching the highest point since mid-2022.
Lenders issued $568 billion worth of residential mortgages in the fourth quarter, a 1.4% quarterly increase and a 26.3% jump from one year earlier.
“The in-boxes of mortgage lenders emptied out a bit during the Fall of 2024 following a couple of strong quarters that had pointed to a possible revival for the industry. Things slowed down as the market remained tight and the cost of borrowing went back, all during the usual annual home-buying lull,” said Rob Barber, CEO at ATTOM. “One small surprise emerged with refinancings increasing again despite rising interest rates. That may have happened because rates started the quarter at one of the more attractive points over the past few years, suggesting that homeowners were trying to get their mortgages reset before borrowing costs went back up.”
Barber added that “forces remain in places for lending to remain slow. But the fallback was modest, and the trend should turn back around to some degree over the coming months as the weather warms and home buying heats back up, especially if mortgage rates settle down.”
