FHFA: Refinance Report – First Quarter 2018
Investor Update
May 15, 2018
Source: FHFA
First Quarter 2018 Highlights
- Total refinance volume decreased in March 2018 as mortgage rates rose in February, continuing a trent first observed in October 2017. Mortgage rates increased in March: the average interest rate on a 30?year fixed rate mortgage rose to 4.44 percent from 4.33 percent in February, reaching levels last observed in 2014.
In the first quarter of 2018:
- Borrowers completed 4,139 refinances through HARP, bringing total refinances from the inception of the program to 3,488,165.
- HARP volume represented 1 percent of total refinance volume.
- Borrowers with loan?to?value ratios greater than 105 percent accounted for 16 percent of the volume of HARP loans.
- Thirty-four percent of HARP refinances for underwater borrowers were for shorter?term 15? and 20?year mortgages, which build equity faster than traditional 30?year mortgages.
- HARP refinances represented 3 percent of total refinances in Illinois — triple the 1 percent of total refinances nationwide over the same period.
- In March, 6 percent of the loans refinanced through HARP had a loan?to?value ratio greater than 125 percent.
- Borrowers who refinanced through HARP had a lower delinquency rate compared to borrowers eligible for HARP who did not refinance through the program.
- Nine states and one U.S. terriitory accounted for over 70 percent of the nation’s HARP eligible loans with a refinance incentive as of December 31, 2017.
Attachments: Refinance Report – First Quarter 2018