Mortgage News for the Week of May 15, 2020
Read the Latest Market Data for the Philadelphia Region
Realtor.com: Housing Market Will Bounce Back This Year, but the Rebound Could be Short-Lived if Virus Spikes Again
Realtor.com now expects that home sales in the U.S. will rebound in the late summer and early fall as fears of the coronavirus begin to cool down, before experiencing a downturn again later in the year.

The real estate site released a new housing forecast Wednesday, which predicts that despite an uptick in transactions during the third quarter, largely from Millennials, home sales will be down 15% year over year. Read more from Housing Wire.
Fourth Consecutive Weekly Jump in Mortgage Applications
As states reopen, buyers are reemerging faster than expected, proving market resiliency against the COVID-19 pandemic. Applications to purchase a home posted their fourth consecutive weekly increase, rising 11% last week, the Mortgage Bankers Associations reported Wednesday.

Applications are still 10% lower than a year ago but the annual loss continues to shrink each week. For example, last week’s purchase volume was down 19% annually. A month ago, purchase volume was down 35% compared to a year earlier. Read more from NAR's Realtor Magazine.
Homeowners Are Preparing to List After the Pandemic
Homeowners are readying homes for listing while potential buyers have changed which home features are important to them post-pandemic.
Real estate professionals report that about 77% of potential sellers are preparing to sell their homes once stay-at-home orders from the COVID-19 pandemic are lifted, according to a newly released survey from the National Association of REALTORS®. More than half of REALTORS® report their clients are taking on do-it-yourself home improvement projects in preparation, too. Read more from NAR's Realtor Magazine.
Refi Boom Remains Steady as Purchase Demand Continues to Heal
Last week was yet another good one for purchase mortgage activity and refinancing, while continuing to fade, was still at double its pace of a year ago. The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) said the upshot was a slight increase in its Market Composite Index, a measure of mortgage loan application volume. It gained 0.3 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis from one week earlier and was 1 percent higher on an unadjusted basis. Read more from Mortgage News Daily.
House Hunters’ Hunger for Small Towns Continues to Soar—Even as Interest in Big Cities Begins to Recover
Pageviews of houses in small towns are surging amid the coronavirus pandemic, while big cities are staging a more modest comeback.
A  remote home in the woods  in a tiny Illinois village 67 miles southwest of  Chicago  was one of the most-viewed listings on Redfin.com in April. Complete with a wood-burning stove and a natural spring running through the property, the house is reminiscent of the  Shire  in “The Lord of the Rings.” It may be just one example of an emerging migration trend amid the coronavirus outbreak: the shift toward small towns.

Americans are shopping for homes in small towns—those with populations of less than 50,000—at an exceptionally higher rate than they were last year and even last month, far eclipsing the modest recovery occurring in cities as the coronavirus pandemic drags on. And while sales have slowed everywhere, they haven’t suffered quite as much in small-town America—at least not yet. Read more from Redfin.
Despite Record Unemployment, Delinquencies are Still Down From Last Year
The national delinquency rate rose significantly in the first quarter of 2020, driven largely by a surge in the early stage rates. The Mortgage Bankers Association said the rate of loans on one-to-four-unit residential properties rose 59 bps (bps) compared to the fourth quarter of 2019 to a seasonally adjusted rate of 4.36 percent of all loans. This was still 6 bps lower than the rate in the same quarter of last year. The delinquency rate includes loans that are at least one payment past due but does not include loans in the process of foreclosure. Read more from Mortgage News Daily.
Mortgage Market Update
Mortgage Rates Generally Hold Steady
Mortgage rates have stabilized at very low levels over the last few weeks as homebuyer demand slowly improves. Although purchase applications reached a new low in mid-April, today purchase demand is only down ten percent from one year ago. While demand is improving, inventory is low and declining with no signs of a turnaround yet.
We hope you enjoyed this week's Market News. For more information about how PMA can help you, please contact us.
Plymouth Meeting Office: 610.834.8700
Doylestown Office: 215.345.7600
Ocean City, NJ Office: 609.398.8600

Information and analysis is obtained through third parties and is deemed accurate but not guaranteed. Philadelphia Mortgage Advisors is a licensed mortgage lender by the PA Dept. of Banking and Securities, NJ Dept. of Banking & Insurance, the state of DE, the Florida Office of Financial Regulation, MD Mortgage Lender #23004 and VA State Corporation Commission #MC - 6797. NMLS #128570.
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