As Mortgage Demand Is Slashed Due To Rising Rates, So Are The Valuations Of These Companies

Between June 10 and 17, 11 publicly traded mortgage companies saw their market value decline by a combined $6.14 billion. According to a HousingWire examination of stock data, corporate valuations were reduced 17.4% to $29 billion as investors abandoned the sector.

The list of those businesses is below:
Finance of America Companies Inc FOA
Flagstar Bancorp Inc FBC
Home Point Capital Inc HMPT
LoanDepot LDI
Mr Cooper Group Inc COOP
New Residential Investment Corp. NRZ
Ocwen Financial Corporation OCN
PennyMac Financial Services Inc PFSI
Rocket Companies Inc RKT
UWM Holdings Corp UWMC

What Happened: According to data from the Mortgage Bankers Association's (MBA) Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey, mortgage applications fell by 6.3% from just one week earlier, reaching the lowest level since 2000.

Also read: Homebuyers Are Backing Out Of Sales At Record Levels: Report

The National Association of Realtors noted existing home sales dropped from 5.41 million in May to 5.12 million in June. This was the greatest reduction in four months and the fifth consecutive month of declines. The consensus expectation called for 5.38 million. Moreover, it represented the fewest monthly sales since June 2020.

Additional data suggests the demand for larger homes and lower rates triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic is dramatically slowing down due to the Federal Reserve raising of interest rates.

“Purchase activity declined for both conventional and government loans as the weakening economic outlook, high inflation and persistent affordability challenges are impacting buyer demand,” said Joel Kan, an economist for the MBA.

The MBA's reference rate for 30-year mortgages has risen from around 3.30% at the beginning of 2022 to 5.82% as of last week — this raises a typical monthly payback check by hundreds of dollars.

Median existing-home pricing for all housing types in June was $416,000, up from $280,700 in March of 2020, a more moderate increase than the S&P Global REIT national benchmark for all home sales, which was up over 21% in May, marking 124 consecutive months of year-over-year increases, the longest streak on record.

Photo: Imagenet via Shutterstock