HousingWireHousingWire
U.S. residential mortgage originations were down 14% between the the fourth quarter of 2024 and the first quarter of 2025, according to data released Thursday by real estate analytics firm ATTOM. But the 1.4 million originations posted between January and March were up 9.4% from the same period last year — a sign that the housing market is warming up after frosty conditions in 2024.
ATTOM’S report noted that origination activity peaked at nearly 4.2 million in Q1 2021 — when mortgage rates in the 3% range were propelling the post-pandemic homebuying surge.
Today, with rates near 7%, there are fewer borrowers compared to pre-pandemic levels. ATTOM reported that the roughly 593,000 home purchase loans in Q1 2025 were down 20% from the prior quarter, while the 580,000 refinances were down 12%.
But after a lengthy period where refinances dried up, they now account for nearly the same market share as purchase loans. Refis represented 40.2% of all originations in the first three months of the year while the purchase loan share was 41.4%.
“The red-hot housing market we’ve seen over the last few years meant that most home loans were going toward new purchases, but that appears to be changing,” ATTOM CEO Rob Barber said in a statement. “Rather than borrowing money to buy a new property, the data shows homeowners are increasingly looking to restructure their existing mortgages or borrow equity from their homes to cover other expenses.
“If the current trend continues, mortgage refinancing deals will soon make up the biggest share of the home loan market.”
Home equity lines of credit (HELOCs) — which had an 18.2% market share in Q1 2025, according to ATTOM — have grown over the past year due to high levels of tappable equity and significant interest rate decreases for these products.
ATTOM data dovetails with numbers released earlier this week by ICE Mortgage Technology. That report showed that borrowers unlocked $25 billion in home equity during the first quarter — the highest level for this period in 17 years — as the typical rate for a HELOC dropped below 7.5% in March.
Along with a quarterly decline in the total number of originations, Attom also reported a decline in dollar volume that’s due in part to the shrinking number of purchase loans, which tend to have higher loan sizes.
Residential origination volume totaled $478 million in Q1 2025 — down from $582 billion in Q4 2024 but up from $406 billion in Q1 2024.
Which metros are bucking trends?
ATTOM analyzed 193 metro areas with populations of at least 200,000 and at least 1,000 residential mortgage originations during the first quarter. While the number of originations were down in 93% of these metros on a quarterly basis, they remained higher year over year for 74% of these same markets.
Compared to the fourth quarter of 2024, the largest growth in total originations were in Asheville, North Carolina (+24.1%); Cape Coral, Florida (+23.1%); North Port-Sarasota, Florida (+21.7%); Brownsville, Texas (+21.2%); and Tampa (+17.8%).
In contrast, the largest decreases in originations between Q4 2024 and Q1 2025 were in Duluth, Minnesota (-35.6%); Fort Wayne, Indiana (-34.6%); Greeley, Colorado (-34.1%); St. Louis (-31.8%); and Anchorage, Alaska (-31.5%).
When looking specifically at purchase mortgages, Attom found that the largest increase on a quarterly basis was in Yuma, Arizona (+35.5%). Among metros with a population of at least 1 million, only two saw increases in home purchase lending during the period: Tampa (+4%) and Tucson, Arizona (+3.9%).
Conversely, the largest purchase lending declines were seen in Greeley, Colorado (-68%); Anchorage, Alaska (-67.3%); and Fort Wayne, Indiana (-54.7%).
