How lenders and agents can work together as home purchase index continues upward trend
With spring in full swing, it’s no surprise that the real estate market continues to thrive.
Mortgage applications for purchases, for example, increased 3% and are also up by 26% year over year, riding its fourth consecutive week of upward movement. Not a bad showing for the first quarter of 2021.
At the same time, interest rates have inched up moderately, which is having an impact on how much home people can afford. In addition, overall mortgage application volume modestly declined in the middle of March, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association.
Refinancing numbers also experienced a slight drop-off during this period, steering away a handful of potential refinance borrowers. Even with the shrinking incentive, refinancing volume is not far off from where it was in the closing months of 2020.
Still, individuals remain on the hunt for homes of their dreams. Their activity will only continue to strengthen purchase applications and the overall market. Larger purchase loan balances and steady home-price growth appear to be the norm for the foreseeable future. Lack of inventory isn’t helping matters, though. Additional supply could alleviate some of the price tension and make homes affordable for more families.
Of course, we hope interest rates will remain low and that home availability will grow as the year progresses. We are also pleased that homeowners can act if they’ve been thinking about refinancing their homes too.
As prime home-buying season gets underway, we know how important it is to take care of our customers with the resources and information they need to succeed. We also know the power of strategic partnerships. That is why we value our working relationships with real estate agents.
When we work together, our real estate agent partners will know two things immediately. We put the borrowers first. And, we work well together. Our real estate agents can share in resources to boost marketing and outreach efforts for cobranding and other effective sales tactics.
We hope we can partner together and share in our successes. There’s a lot of work before us, and many families are counting on us to provide them with reliable, trustworthy and expert advice and real estate and lending services.