NWA mortgage activity drops for 9th consecutive quarter

According to Attom Data Solutions, mortgage lending in Northwest Arkansas continues to decline after inflation fueled soaring home-loan rates.

The California company, which tracks national housing and foreclosure data, issued its fourth-quarter mortgage report on March 2. It shows that lenders originated 3,450 mortgages secured by residential properties in the Northwest Arkansas metropolitan statistical area (MSA) during the last three months of 2022. That includes all three categories of conventional loans — purchasing, refinancing and home equity.

The fourth-quarter total is down 24.9% from the July to September period and a 50.1% decline from the fourth quarter of 2021. It’s the region’s ninth consecutive quarterly drop since the third quarter of 2020 (7,537).

Refinance loans in Northwest Arkansas (1,110) were down 68% from the fourth quarter of 2021.

There were 1,520 loan originations in central Arkansas during the fourth quarter last year, a quarterly dip of 14.6% and a 62.5% year-over-year decrease. There were 458 loans in the fourth quarter in the Fort Smith metro. That’s a 25.6% quarterly decline and a 53.2% decrease from a year ago.

Nationally, in the fourth quarter of 2022, 1.52 million mortgages were originated, the fewest since the first quarter of 2014. That total was down 24% from the third quarter — the seventh consecutive quarterly decline — and 55% from a year earlier, the largest annual decline since at least 2001.

Overall, lenders issued just $476 billion worth of mortgages in the fourth quarter of 2022, down 27% from the third quarter and 57% year-over-year.