Mortgage applications hit a 25-year low
National Mortgage News
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The Mortgage Bankers Association's Market Composite Index, a measure of weekly mortgage applications based on surveys of association members, decreased 4.5% on a seasonally adjusted basis for the seven-day period ending Oct. 14. Application activity fell for the ninth time in 10 weeks and was 68% below its level during the same week a year ago. "Mortgage applications are now into their fourth month of declines, dropping to the lowest level since 1997," said Joel Kan, MBA's vice president and deputy chief economist, noting the impact of interest rates. The Refinance Index fell 7% week over week, with activity plummeting by 86% from one year ago amid 2022's high interest-rate environment.
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The loan platform combines automation from Compass Analytics that Black Knight bought in 2019 with Resitrader, a trading platform that Optimal Blue had owned prior to its acquisition by Black Knight. An updated version of Optimal Blue's Secondary Services technology also is part of the new platform, which Black Knight has branded CompassEdge. "We are definitely taking the best of all three of those products but we did do some enhancements along the way as well," said Mike Vough, a managing director at Black Knight, in an interview. The technology has been in trial mode and undergoing beta testing.
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Surging mortgage rates caused a standstill in the housing market in September, with the number of homes sold dropping by 25% year-over-year, a Redfin report said. The percentage of new listings also fell by 22%. Both declines are the largest since May 2020 and April 2020, when the onset of the pandemic brought the housing market to a halt, the report said. With mortgage rates at the highest level in two decades and monthly payments jumping by more than 50% year-over-year, homebuyers are not as eager to purchase a house, the report noted.
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