2020 in housing review and what’s ahead in 2021

Today’s HousingWire Daily focuses on some of the housing topics that shaped 2020. In this episode, we take a look back at last year’s biggest housing concerns and hear commentary from industry experts on what’s to come in 2021.

Here is a small preview of today’s episode. The transcript below has been lightly edited for length and clarity:

HousingWire: The MBA has made upward revisions to its 2020 and 2021 origination estimates. Can you discuss this data and possibly why the origination volumes are expected to heat up?

Mike Fratantoni: As folks in the housing industry know, 2020 has just been an extraordinary year. So, we expect it will have one of the largest refinance and origination volumes ever. As you [previously] mentioned, some of the incoming data was surprisingly strong, as we saw a full percentage point drop in the unemployment rate going from September to October. We also saw existing home sales reach their highest level since 2005, and new construction climb 30% in terms of annual single-family housing starts. Currently, we’re seeing home prices boom across the country with the median price of an existing home increasing more than 15% on a year-over-year basis. All of that is feeding into stronger purchase origination numbers, and with record-low mortgage rates, that really is feeding this extraordinary refinance wave.

HousingWire Daily examines the most compelling articles reported from the HousingWire newsroom. Each afternoon, we provide our listeners with a deeper look into the stories coming across our newsroom that are helping Move Markets Forward. Hosted by the HW team and produced by Alcynna Lloyd and Victoria Wickham.

HousingWire articles related to this episode:

• Black Knight’s Walden on mortgage delinquencies in 2021
• Redfin’s Daryl Fairweather on whether or not there will be a foreclosure crisis
• TIAA Bank’s John Pataky on homebuyer demand
• MBA’s Mike Fratantoni on next year’s purchase market