The fourth quarter of 2020 saw 3.51 million residential property mortgages secured, according to the ATTOM Data Solutions’ 2020 U.S. Residential Property Mortgage Origination Report. That’s up 48 percent from a year before, to the highest level in almost 14 years.
Lenders issued $1.06 trillion worth of mortgages in the fourth quarter of 2020, up 6 percent from the third quarter and 55 percent from a year ago. That represents the largest quarterly amount in 20 years.
“Lenders continued working overtime across the United States in the fourth quarter of 2020, with increases in loans and dollar volumes rarely seen during a time of year when activity normally slows down. The rising numbers left another in a long string of markers showing how the housing market has mostly avoided economic damage stemming from the virus pandemic,” said Todd Teta, chief product officer at ATTOM Data Solutions. “As with other housing market measures, the appetite for loans among homeowners and home seekers in the coming months remains uncertain, depending on interest rates and multiple factors connected to the pandemic. But the fourth-quarter data shows continued strong demand for new mortgages, especially among homeowners looking to refinance.”
Lenders refinanced 2.23 million home mortgages in the fourth quarter, 12 percent more than in the third quarter and 71 percent more than a year ago. Refinance loans rose to $666.8 billion, an 11 percent increase from the third quarter and a 67 percent increase from the fourth quarter in 2019.
Homeowners continued taking advantage of low rates to roll over old mortgages into new ones. Those types of loans comprised 63 percent of all home loans in the fourth quarter, up from 60 percent in the third quarter and 55 percent in the fourth quarter of 2019.
The median loan amount for homes purchased in the fourth quarter was $280,000, the highest since 2000. It was up 3.4 percent from the third quarter and 24.7 percent from a year ago.
Home-purchase lending activity dropped 4 percent from the third to the fourth quarter, and home equity credit lines fell 3 percent. Those declines were not as steep as usual, according to the report. Purchase lending usually drops more than 10 percent during the fourth quarter, while home equity credit lines usually fall more than 5 percent.