Residential loan originations — including traditional mortgages and home-equity products — leapt during the first three months of this year. First mortgage activity supported the surge.
Home lending activity added up to $466 billion during the first three months of this year.
That was a whopping 74 percent improvement over the same three-month period last year based on the dollar volume of production.
The statistics were discussed in the Equifax National Consumer Credit Trends Report released Monday.
First mortgages accounted for 1.78 million loans totaling $430 billion during the first-quarter 2015, surging 80 percent from the first-quarter 2014.
Subprime borrowers
— those whose scores fell below 620 — represented more than three percent of first-quarter, first-mortgage originations.
Subprime share prior to the financial crisis in the first-quarter 2008 exceeded 10 percent.
Home-equity line-of-credit production made up another 285,700 accounts for $30.9 billion, a 30 percent increase from a year earlier.
Subprime HELOCs accounted for 4,400 of the lines opened in the latest quarter.
Closed-end home-equity loan originations rose 14 percent to 142,800 units for $5 billion.
As of May 2015, HELs outstanding were 4.5 million loans for $134.7 billion, off 10 percent from a year earlier.
