Mortgage lending declines at unusually fast pace across U.S.

A new report from California-based Attom Data Solutions shows mortgage lending in the U.S. declined at an unusually fast pace during the third quarter.

Attom’s current mortgage lending report shows national loan applications were down 8% from the second quarter of 2021 — the largest quarterly dip in over a year.

“The quarterly decline also was the second in a row and pointed to two unusual patterns developing the in the lending industry,” the Attom report said. “It marks the first time in more than two years that total lending decreased in two consecutive quarters. More notably, it was the first time in any year since at least 2000 that lending activity declined both the second and third quarters, which usually are peak buying seasons.”

The U.S. year-over-year increase was 3%.

In Arkansas, there were 6,616 loan originations in the July-September period in the Northwest Arkansas metro. That’s a 3.1% quarterly dip and an 8.9% dip from the third quarter of 2020.

In central Arkansas, there were 7,911 loan originations in the third quarter, a quarterly dip of 1.7% but a 5.1% year-over-year increase. There were 2,217 loans in the third quarter in the Fort Smith metro.  That’s a 3% quarterly decline and essentially flat from a year ago.

Overall, with average interest rates remaining below 3% for 30-year home loans, lenders issued $1.15 trillion worth of mortgages in the third quarter of 2021. That was up annually by 11%, but down quarterly by 6%.