ATTOM has released its Q4 2024 U.S. Residential Property Mortgage Origination Report, which shows that 1.64 million mortgages secured by residential property (one to four units) were issued in the U.S. during the fourth quarter—down 3% quarterly, but up 14% from a year earlier. The quarterly drop-off—after increases earlier in 2024—came as mortgage rates rose, supplies of residential properties for sale remained near five-year lows, and the home-buying market hit its usual Fall slow season. Despite the annual gain in lending activity, the total number of home mortgages issued during Q4 of last year remained down by nearly two-thirds from a high point hit in 2021.
The latest trend resulted from declines in purchase and home-equity lending, tempered by an increase in refinance packages.
Lending to home buyers shrank 7.5% from the third to the fourth quarter of 2024, to about 732,000, while the number of home equity credit lines dipped 11.6%, to roughly 267,000. Mortgage rollovers, however, increased for the third consecutive quarter, growing 6.4% to about 642,000. Measured monetarily, lenders issued $568 billion worth of residential mortgages in Q4—up 1.4% from Q3 of 2024, and 26.3% from Q4 of 2023.
The mixed pattern of ups and downs among various loan types raised the portion of all residential mortgages represented by refinance deals, while lowering the purchase and home-equity loan components. Nevertheless, purchase loans once again stood as the most common form of mortgages around the U.S. during Q4, comprising almost half.
“The in-boxes of mortgage lenders emptied out a bit during the Fall of 2024 following a couple of strong quarters that had pointed to a possible revival for the industry. Things slowed down as the market remained tight and the cost of borrowing went back, all during the usual annual home-buying lull,” said Rob Barber, CEO at ATTOM. “One small surprise emerged with refinancings increasing again despite rising interest rates. That may have happened because rates started the quarter at one of the more attractive points over the past few years, suggesting that homeowners were trying to get their mortgages reset before borrowing costs went back up.”
Refis Continue Upward Growth
Despite interest rates rising during Q4 of last year, the number of residential refinance mortgages issued by lenders climbed to 641,918. That was up from 603,324 in the prior three-month period, and by 28.2% from 500,877 in Q4 of 2023.
The recent increase marked the third quarterly gain in a row, reaching the highest point since mid-2022. Refinancing activity has gradually increased over the past two years following a spike in interest rates in 2021 and 2022 that caused mortgage rollovers to slump more than 80%. The $228.5 billion dollar volume of refinance packages in Q4 of 2024 remained significantly below a peak of $830.9 billion in 2021. But it was up 15.7% from $197.6 billion in Q3 of last year, and up 46.7% from $155.8 billion in Q4 of 2023.
Refinancing activity increased quarterly in 73.8%, and annually in 93.1% of the metro areas around the U.S. with enough data to analyze.
The largest quarterly refi increases were reported in:
- Hilton Head, South Carolina (refinance loans up 56.4% from the third to the fourth quarter of 2024)
- Wilmington, North Carolina (up 48.9%)
- San Jose, California (up 43.8%)
- Buffalo, New York (up 41.9%)
- San Francisco, California (up 35.4%)
Aside from San Jose, San Francisco and Buffalo, metro areas with a population of least one million where refinance activity increased most quarterly were found in:
- Denver, Colorado (up 23.9%)
- Houston, Texas (up 22.5%)
Metro areas with a population of at least one million and the largest year-over-year increases in the number of refinance loans were reported in:
- San Jose, California (up 170.6% from Q4 of 2023 to Q4 of 2024)
- San Francisco, California (up 113.8%)
- Seattle, Washington (up 86.8%)
- Los Angeles, California (up 84.6%)
- San Diego, California (up 80.9%)
Refinance packages comprised 39.1% of all loan originations in Q4 of 2024—up from 35.6% in the prior quarter to the highest level since early in 2022, but still not close to the 65.7% portion reported in 2021.
Total Lending Falls
Banks and other lenders issued a total of 1,640,106 residential mortgages in Q4 of 2024—down 3.3% from 1,695,915 in Q3 of 2024, although still up from 1,433,864 in Q4 of 2023. Total activity went down after two straight quarterly gains, keeping the latest count 60% beneath a recent high point of 4,135,893 reached in Q1 of 2021 when average 30-year mortgages rate hovered around 3%. A total of $568.5 billion was lent to homeowners and buyers in Q4 2024, up slightly from $560.7 billion in Q3, and from $450.2 billion in Q4 of 2023. Still, it was less than half the peak of $1.3 trillion hit in 2021.
Overall lending activity followed downward quarterly and upward annual trends in a majority of metropolitan areas around the U.S. with enough data to analyze. The total decreased from Q3 to Q4 of last year in 132, or 65.3%, of the 202 metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs) that had a population of 200,000 or more and at least 1,000 total residential mortgages issued from October through December of 2024. It remained up from Q4 of 2023 in 175, or 86.6%, of the metro areas analyzed.
The largest quarterly decreases were reported in:
- Louis, Missouri (total lending down 31% from Q3 of 2024 to Q4 of 2024)
- Augusta, Georgia (down 23.4%)
- Savannah, Georgia (down 21%)
- Baton Rouge, Louisiana (down 20.6%)
- Beaumont, Texas (down 20.1%)
Aside from St. Louis, metro areas with a population of least one million that had the biggest decreases in total loans from Q3 to Q4 of 2024 were:
- Atlanta, Georgia (down 18.9%)
- Rochester, New York (down 16.5%)
- Virginia Beach, Virginia (down 15.9%)
- Tampa, Florida (down 13%)
Metro areas with enough data to analyze where lending increased the most quarterly were found in:
- Honolulu, Hawaii (up 58.7%)
- Hilo, Hawaii (up 51.8%)
- Hilton Head, South Carolina (up 39.7%)
- Charleston, South Carolina (up 26%)
- Buffalo, New York (up 18.9%)
Measured annually, the largest increases in total lending among metro areas with a population of at least one million were:
- San Jose, California (total lending up 78.1% from Q4 of 2023 to Q4 of 2024)
- Honolulu, Hawaii (up 75%)
- Los Angeles, California (up 43%)
- San Francisco, California (up 40.7%)
- San Diego, California (up 40.1%)
Purchase Mortgages Slip in Q4
The decline in overall Q4 lending activity was driven largely by the latest decrease in the number of mortgages issued to home buyers, which dropped to 731,517. While lending to buyers remained up annually by 6.4%, the Q4 total was off from 790,970 in the prior quarter. It also sat far below a 1.6 million highwater mark hit in the Spring of 2021.
The latest dollar volume of purchase loans, $289.7 billion, was 5.5% less than the $306.5 billion Q3 level, and 45.7% below a 2021 peak. Still, it was up 16.2% from the $249.3 billion amount loaned in late 2023. Residential purchase-mortgage originations decreased quarterly in 79.7% of the 202 metro areas in the report, while they were up annually in 70.3% of those markets.
The largest quarterly decreases were reported in:
- Louis, Missouri (purchase loans down 36.2% from Q3 of 2024 to Q4 of 2024)
- Augusta, Georgia (down 31.1%)
- Baton Rouge, Louisiana (down 30.4%)
- Atlanta, Georgia (down 27.9%)
- Shreveport, Louisiana (down 27.2%)
Aside from St. Louis and Atlanta, the biggest quarterly decreases in metro areas with a population of at least one million in Q4 of 2024 came in:
- Virginia Beach, Virginia (down 21.4%)
- Minneapolis, Minnesota (down 18.2%)
- San Antonio, Texas (down 17.4%)
The top annual increases in purchase lending in metro areas with a population of at least one million were found in:
- Honolulu, Hawaii (up 113.5% from Q4 of 2023 to Q4 of 2024)
- San Jose, California (up 50.2%)
- Birmingham, Alabama (up 42.1%)
- Portland, Oregon (up 41.8%)
- Las Vegas, Nevada (up 39.1%)
FHA and VA Mortgages Grow
Lenders issued 244,984 mortgages backed by the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) during Q4 of 2024, which was 14.9% of all residential property loans. That was up from 13.6% in Q3 of last year although still down from 15.8% in Q4 of 2023.
Residential loans backed by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) totaled 106,900, or 6.5% of all residential property loans originated in Q4 of 2024. That also was up, from 5.8% in the previous quarter, as well as from 4.4% in Q4 of 2023.
Click here for more on ATTOM’s analysis of Q4 loan originations.
