ATTOM Data Solutions reported that 3.77 million residential mortgages originated in the first quarter of 2021, up 3 percent from the previous quarter and 71 percent from a year ago, to the highest level in more than 14 years.
The increase also marked the first time the total number of home mortgages rose from the fourth quarter to the first quarter since 2009, according to ATOMM’s first-quarter 2021 U.S. Residential Property Mortgage Origination Report.
Lenders issued $1.16 trillion worth of mortgages in the first quarter of 2021, up 5 percent from the fourth quarter of 2020 and 81 percent from a year ago, to the largest quarterly amount since 2000, according to the report.
The continued increase in mortgage activity is due to the jump in refinance mortgages, according to the report. Refinance lending has more than doubled over the past year.
The 2.55 million home mortgages that lenders refinanced in the first quarter represented a 12 percent increase over the fourth quarter and a 113 percent spike year-over-year. Refinance loans rose to $777.5 billion, a 14 percent increase from the previous quarter and a 114 percent jump from a year ago.
“Homeowners lined up to refinance their loans in ever-growing numbers during the first quarter of 2021, making for a highly unusual quarterly increase in total lending activity for that time of year,” ATTOM Chief Product Officer Todd Teta said in a release. “The home-mortgage industry almost always slows down in winter, but not this year because of so many homeowners hopping on super-low interest rates to reduce their monthly payments.”
Homeowners rolling over old mortgages into new ones continued to comprise most home loans in the first quarter. They accounted for 68 percent of all home loans, up from 62 percent in the fourth quarter and 54 percent a year ago, to the highest level since the first quarter of 2013.
That contrasted with home-purchase lending, which decreased 7 percent from the fourth quarter, and home-equity-credit-line activity, which fell 27 percent.
“Eventually, the refi side of the lending business will ease up after enough homeowners get in on the good deals. But there’s no sign of that happening in the very near future, yet another indicator of how the housing market remains strong amid uncertain economic times connected to the pandemic,” Teta said.