Recently released data from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York’s Center for Microeconomic Data revealed that the first quarter of this year was the mortgage business’ worst quarter in more than four years, but a deeper dive into the data shows that on the refinance side of things, it may have been the worst quarter since the financial crisis, HousingWire.com reported. The Fed report, which looks at mortgage originations as appearances of new mortgage balances on consumer credit reports and includes refinances, showed that the first quarter had the lowest dollar amount of mortgage originations in any quarter since the third quarter of 2014. In fact, according to a new report from the Federal Housing Finance Agency, Fannie and Freddie refinanced fewer mortgages in the first quarter than they have in any quarter since at least 2008. According to the FHFA report, Fannie and Freddie refinanced a total of 234,716 mortgages in the first quarter of this year. And a review of 10 years worth of data from the FHFA shows that that is the fewest number of refinances completed by the government-sponsored enterprises in any quarter since the financial crisis.
