Freddie Sees Mortgage Originations Contracting Nearly 20% in 2021
Posted To: MND NewsWire
Freddie Mac’s first quarter 2021 economic forecast is unusually short, and, unlike recent forecasts from either of the GSEs, has relatively few revisions. The company’s economists say that nearly a year after the first cases of COVID-19 were diagnosed in the U.S., economic growth remains uncertain, with answers largely hinging on the roll-out of the new vaccines. The labor market remains weak with close to 20 million collecting unemployment insurance. December’s job losses, the first since last April, didn’t change the unemployment rate from 6.7 percent because labor participation also declined. Record low mortgage rates continued to carry the housing market during the turmoil of the pandemic. At the end of the first week of 2021, the 30-year rate hit 2.65 percent, a new low. Freddie Mac expects…(read more)