Mortgage group: Home lending headed for big drop

Kristena Hansen

Reporter- Phoenix Business Journal

             

A large mortgage industry group is predicting home lending to take a sizable drop in 2014.
In a statement this week, the Mortgage Bankers Association projected that the volume of all new mortgages written in 2014 will dive by nearly one-third, from $1.75 trillion this year to $1.19 trillion next year.
What will be responsible for the decline are mortgage refinacings, which have already been dropping in recent months as interest rates rise and has subsequently spurred widespread bank layoffs of thousands of mortgage-related jobs in metro Phoenix and nationwide.
The MBA predicts mortgage refinancings to plunge 57 percent year-over-year, while purchase mortgages should increase by 9 percent.

Kristena Hansen covers residential and commercial real estate.