Survey: Mortgages shift from adjustable to fixed-rate products

Percentages in the survey are based on dollar volume of originated loans. Among the survey’s key findings:

• For first mortgages, fixed-rate loans, including interest-only loans, accounted for 46.2 percent of loans in the second half of 2006. That’s compared to 43.3 percent in the first half of 2006.

• First-time home buyers represented 26.9 percent of all purchases for the second half of the year, a percentage that was unchanged from the first half of 2006. The average loan amount for these buyers was $197,044, less than the average amount of $228,547 for non-first-time buyers.

• Of the originations in the second half of 2006, 19.9 percent were for single-family attached homes; 75.1 percent were for single-family detached homes; 1 percent were for manufactured and mobile homes; and 4 percent were for multi-unit structures.

• Approximately 55.4 percent of single-family attached home originations were for condos or cooperatives, with the remainder for other single-family attached properties such as townhouses, duplexes and row houses.

• Compared with the first half of 2006, the second half of 2006 saw origination volume of all second mortgages decrease 5.8 percent. Illustrating the move to fixed-rate loans, closed-end seconds increased 6.3 percent while open-end seconds or home equity lines of credit decreased 11.6 percent.

The survey included 84 participants. In the second half of 2006, survey participants originated $681 billion in first mortgages and $163 billion in second mortgages. 

The Mortgage Bankers Association has its headquarters in Washington, D.C., and represents more than 500,000 people in the real estate finance industry.