Mortgage Market Continues to Shine; Raising our Origination Forecasts for 2016 to $1.9T; Setting 2017 at $1.75T
With continued strength in the purchase mortgage market and a healthy boost to refis in light of the low interest rate environment throughout the year, we are raising our estimate for 2016 total mortgage industry originations to $1.9 trillion from $1.65 trillion. For some time now, we have articulated our belief that the normalized origination market in the U.S. shakes out at around $1.7 trillion with the purchase market representing somewhere in the range of $900 billion to $1 trillion and the refi market accounting for the delta. With that in mind, we think that the tailwinds from lower interest rates will boost production through that level in FY16, hence our $1.9 trillion estimate. Additionally, we are introducing our 2017 estimate of $1.75 trillion, which assumes continued positive momentum in the purchase market but a decline in refi volumes from 2016.