Lenders are sticking to tight underwriting standards as they reconcile smaller capacity with a sluggish housing market.
Mortgage credit availability rose by a tiny margin in June
"Lenders are streamlining their operations by offering fewer loan programs, with some exiting certain channels," said Joel Kan, MBA vice president and deputy chief economist, in a press release. "Data from our Weekly Applications Survey indicated that June mortgage applications were more than 30% lower than a year ago and at the slowest pace since December 2022."
Merger and acquisition activity
The MBA's index analyzes data from ICE Mortgage Technology and was benchmarked to a score of 100 in 2012. It's calculated using underwriting criteria for more than 95 lenders including borrowers' credit scores, loan-to-value ratios and other data in a proprietary formula.
The index rose significantly when originations were thriving in the past two years, but is now down 19% from last June, when it was at 119.6. The conventional loan index was unchanged compared with May, but the jumbo component was down for the second consecutive month, this time by 0.2% The government product index was also unchanged.
Homebuyers appear relegated to the sidelines with affordability near a 37-year low, according to