There were more than 2 million loans secured by residential property during the second quarter of 2018, up 15 percent from the previous quarter and up less than 1 percent from a year ago, according to ATTOM Data Solutions’ Residential Property Loan Origination Report.
However, second-quarter refinances dropped to their lowest level since the first quarter of 2014.
“Rising mortgage rates are cooling mortgage demand across the board, with refinances down to their lowest level since 2014 — the last time we saw more than six consecutive months with average 30-year fixed mortgage rates above 4 percent,” ATTOM Senior Vice President Daren Blomquist said in a release.
“Meanwhile buyers are upping the ante when it comes to down payments, evidenced by the record-high median down payment for homes purchased in the quarter, and an increasing number of buyers are getting help from co-buyers,” Blomquist added.
For the quarter, 926,516 of the residential loans originated were purchase loans, up 39 percent from the previous quarter and up 1 percent from a year ago, the report found.
Refinance loans represented 799,093 of the residential loans originated in the quarter, down less than 1 percent from the previous quarter and down 2 percent from a year ago, according to the report. Home equity lines of credit (361,845) during the quarter increased 4 percent from the previous quarter and 2 percent from a year ago, ATTOM said.
The report said decreasing refi originations were led by Los Angeles (down 13 percent), Chicago (down 5 percent), and Philadelphia (down 9 percent).
The median down payment on single family homes and condos purchased with financing in the second quarter was $19,900, up 19 percent from $16,750 in the previous quarter and up 18 percent from $16,925 one year ago, the report found. That median down payment during the quarter was 7.6 percent of the median sales price of the homes purchased with financing, up from 6.6 percent in the previous quarter and up from 6.6 percent one year ago to the highest level since the third quarter of 2003.
The report identified the MSAs with the biggest median down payments for homes purchased as San Jose, Calif. ($306,000); San Francisco ($220,000); Los Angeles ($130,000); Oxnard-Thousand Oaks-Ventura, Calif. ($115,400); and Boulder, Colo. ($107,750).