Mortgage News

• New Home Purchase Applications Ramping up for Spring

  True to tradition, new home sales appear to have moved higher in March as the calendar closed in on the start of the spring market. The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) estimates sales of newly constructed homes increased by 7 percent compared to February and are 12 percent higher than a year earlier. This change does not include any adjustment for typical seasonal patterns. Based on the application data, MBA forecasts that home sales were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 714,000 units in March. This is a decline of 4.5 percent from the February rate of 748,000 units. On an unadjusted basis, the forecast is for 72,000 new home sales in during the month, an increase of 10.8 percent from 65,000 sales in February. 

• COVID-19 Forbearance Decline Hits Mid-Month Lull

  There was little change in the number of active forbearance plans over the past week, but Black Knight reminds, in its regular Friday report, that this it was simply another mid-month lull as servicers finished processing the prior month's expired plans. Even so, the number of plans did decline for the seventh straight week, even if it was by a mere 1,000 loans or 0.04 percent. There are 380,000 plans set to expire at the end of April so Black Knight says the possibility remains of further improvement over the next two weeks. Even with the minimal decline of the past week, the number of outstanding plans is still down by 296,000 (11.4 percent) over the last month.

   

• Housing Starts Reach Highest Levels Since 2006

  Residential construction recovered in March after a serious decline the prior month. The U.S. Census Bureau and Department of Housing and Urban Development said all three measures rose, with housing starts hitting a 15 year high. Some regional increases topped 100 percent. Permits for residential construction were issued at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.766 million in March, a 2.7 percent increase from February's rate of 1.720 million. The latter is an upward revision from the 1.682 million permits originally reported for February, erasing some of the near 11 percent loss originally reported. The permitting rate for the month was 30.2 percent higher than in March 2020.