Mortgage Originations Tank in Third Quarter, With Biggest Hits Landing in Agency Conforming Markets
October 28, 2004
The sudden drop in mortgage refinance activity in the third quarter of 2004 spurred a sharp decline in new loan production, weighed down by sagging volume in the government-insured and conventional conforming markets. Based on lender surveys conducted by Inside Mortgage Finance, mortgage originations plummeted to an estimated $650 billion in the third quarter, a sharp 18.8 percent decline from the second quarter. Although interest rates dropped during the period, the decline wasn’t enough to…