Residential lending saw a 23.2% increase in Q2 2024 over the prior three-month period, marking the first gain in a year and bolstered by strong spring buying. WASHINGTON – More than 1.5 million mortgages were issued in the U.S. during the second quarter, according to a new report released by ATTOM. The second-quarter 2024 U.S. Residential Property Mortgage Origination Report, which shows that 1.62 million mortgages secured by residential property (1 to 4 units) were issued in the United States during the second quarter, representing a 23.2% increase over the prior three-month period. The spike still left total residential lending activity down 1.6% from the second quarter of 2023 and 61.2% from a high point hit in 2021. But it marked the first gain in a year and boosted the number of residential loans back up close to the level from a year earlier. The rebound came amid a strong Spring home-buying season and mortgage interest rates that dipped downward after months of increases. The increase in overall lending resulted from improvements across all major categories of residential loans, especially for home buying. Purchase-loan activity jumped 32.7% quarterly, to about 783,000, refinance deals rose by 10.3%, to about 546,000, and home-equity credit lines shot up 26.5%, to about 286,000. Measured monetarily, lenders issued nearly $533 billion worth of residential mortgages in the second quarter of 2024. That was up 27.6% from the first quarter of 2024 and 1.1% from the second quarter of last year.
