FHFA: Refinance Report – January 2018
Investor Update
March 15, 2018
Source: FHFA
January 2018 Highlights
- Total refinance volume decreased in January 2018 as mortgage rates in December rose, continuing a trend first observed in October. Mortgage rates increased in January: the average interest rate on a 30?year fixed rate mortgage rose to 4.03 percent from 3.95 percent in December.
Additional January highlights include the following:
- Borrowers completed 1,557 refinances through HARP, bringing total refinances from the inception of the program to 3,485,583.
- HARP volume represented 1 percent of total refinance volume.
- Six percent of the loans refinanced through HARP had a loan-to?value ratio greater than 125 percent.
- Borrowers with loan-to-value ratios greater than 105 percent accounted for 15 percent of the volume of HARP loans.
- Thirty 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 Georgia and Illinois — triple the 1 percent of total refinances nationwide over the same period.
- 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. territory accounted for over 70 percent of the nation’s HARP eligible loans with a refinance incentive as of September 30, 2017.
Attachments: Refinance Report – January 2018