ATTOM’s latest residential property mortgage origination report shows 1.97 million mortgages originated in the third quarter. That’s down 19 percent from the second quarter and down 47 percent from the third quarter of 2021.

ATTOM’s 2022 U.S. residential property mortgage origination report shows 1.97 million mortgages secured by residential property were originated in the third quarter. That’s down 19 percent from the second quarter and down 47 percent from the third quarter of 2021.

The continued decline in residential lending resulted from double-digit downturns in both refinance and purchase loan activity that far outweighed another increase in home-equity credit lines, according to ATTOM.

Lenders issued $636.5 billion worth of mortgages in the third quarter, down quarterly by 22 percent and annually by 46 percent. The annual decrease in the dollar volume of mortgages was the largest since at least 2001 and is the latest sign that the 11-year U.S. housing market boom is losing steam, ATTOM said.

“There are no surprises in this quarter’s loan origination numbers, as the unprecedented jump in mortgage rates has battered both the purchase and refinance markets,” ATTOM Executive Vice President of Market Intelligence Rick Sharga said in a release. “Prospective homebuyers have been priced out of the market by the combination of 7 percent mortgage rates and higher home prices. And refinance activity will probably continue to decline, since the majority of homeowners have loans with sub-4 percent interest rates.”

Refinancing activity was down 31 percent from the second quarter and 68 percent from a year earlier. Refinancing activity has dropped for six consecutive quarters, and the dollar volume of refinance loans between July and September was down 33 percent from the second quarter and 67 percent annually, to $212 billion.

The number of purchase loans fell by 16 percent quarterly and 33 percent annually, while the dollar volume decreased to $353.9 billion.

Home equity lines of credits (HELOC) saw a 5 percent quarterly jump in the number and value of, the third quarterly straight gain.

By the end of the third quarter, refi activity represented just a third of overall mortgages, compared with two-thirds as recently as the first quarter of last year. Purchase lending continued at just under half of all activity in the third quarter, while home-equity packages comprised one of every five mortgage deals completed. That ratio for HELOC loans was up from one of every 21 a year and a half ago.

Lending activity decreased from the second to third quarter in 98 percent of the metro areas with a population of more than 200,000 that ATTOM studied. Total lending activity was down at least 15 percent in 55 percent of the metros analyzed. The largest quarterly decreases were in Myrtle Beach, S.C. (lending down 52.7 percent), Knoxville, Tenn. (down 44.5 percent), Charleston, S.C. (down 43 percent), Ogden, Utah (down 41 percent), and Buffalo, N.Y. (down 36.2 percent).

The biggest increases, or smallest decreases, in the number of mortgages from the second to third quarter were in Hartford, Conn. (up 5 percent), Syracuse, N.Y. (up 0.8 percent), Claremont-Lebanon, N.H. (up 0.8 percent); Warner Robins, Ga. (up 0.6 percent), and York, Pa. (down 0.6 percent).

No metro areas with a population of at least 1 million aside from Hartford saw total loan originations increase from the second to the third quarter of this year.

Refi activity decreased from the second to third quarter in 99 percent of the metro areas analyzed by ATTOM. Activity dropped quarterly by at least 25 percent in 62 percent. The largest quarterly decreases were in Myrtle Beach, S.C. (down 62 percent), Buffalo, N.Y. (down 59.4 percent), Salinas, Calif. (down 54.7 percent), Knoxville, Tenn. (down 52.4 percent), and Charleston, S.C. (down 49.5 percent).

The only metro areas where refinance lending increased were Sioux Falls, S.D. (up 11.4 percent) and Hartford, Conn. (up 3.2 percent).

Residential purchase-mortgage originations decreased from the second to third quarter in 82 percent of the metro areas in the report and dipped annually in 98 percent. The largest quarterly decreases were in Myrtle Beach, S.C. (down 50.8 percent), Ogden, Utah (down 47.6 percent), Naples, Fla. (down 41.8 percent), Charleston, S.C. (down 41.3 percent) and Knoxville, Tenn. (down 40.1 percent).

Residential purchase-mortgage lending increased most in Syracuse, N.Y. (up 24.9 percent), Claremont-Lebanon, N.H. (up 24.3 percent), Rochester, N.Y. (up 20 percent), Dayton, Ohio (up 18.9 percent) and Kalamazoo, Mich. (up 15.7 percent).

HELOCs comprised 18.5 percent of all third-quarter loans, almost four times the 4.8 percent level from the first quarter of 2021.

“While HELOC activity has dramatically increased over the past few quarters, its growth rate slowed down significantly on a quarter-to-quarter basis, which raises the question of whether we might be at or near a cyclical peak in HELOC activity,” Sharga said. “Even with the recent increases, HELOC volume is still nowhere near the record level of activity we saw in the mid-2000s during the run-up to the financial crisis.”

The largest increases in metro areas with a population of at least 1 million were in New Orleans (home-equity loans up 52.8 percent), Houston (up 47.5 percent), Dallas (up 35.4 percent), Tucson, Ariz. (up 32.8 percent); and Atlanta (up 30.9 percent).

The largest quarterly decreases in HELOCs among metro areas with a population of at least 1 million were in Buffalo, N.Y. (down 31.9 percent), St. Louis (down 26.7 percent), Honolulu (down 14.5 percent); San Jose, Calif. (down 10.9 percent), and Rochester, N.Y. (down 9.1 percent).