The number of mortgage loans originated fell by 50% between 2021 and 2025, with refinancings down by almost 80%, as interest rates spiked off the record lows of the pandemic era.
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But making up the gap was gains in home equity/
The shift is a sign the housing market has changed from a stepping stone for mobility to a place where families hunker down for the long-term, argued Brian Fox, co-founder and chief revenue officer at Benutech.
“The ‘stay-put’ economy has profound implications for the broader American financial landscape,” Fox said in a press release. “As long as the spread between current market mortgage rates and the ‘locked-in’ rates of the early 2020s remains wide, the velocity of housing turnover will remain suppressed.”
The 30-year fixed rate mortgage, as tracked by Freddie Mac,
The study shows refinancings had an outsized impact on the mortgage market in both 2020 and 2021, at 8.7 million and 8.4 million loans respectively in each year. But rising rates in 2022 brought that down to 2.2 million.
The following year, it fell to a 10-year trough of 1.1 million
For 2025, 1.7 million refinance mortgages were produced. This compared with 1.5 million equity loans.
Purchase loans also had their high water mark in 2021 at 5.5 million loans. By 2023, these fell to 3.5 million, but moved back up to 3.7 million last year.
Traditional mortgage originators and real estate salespeople are facing a structural bottleneck, he claimed.
“The data is clear: The American homeowner has adapted to the high-rate era not by packing moving trucks, but by
How the data varies by region
But the data also showed a regional divide, the company claimed. In New England, the Midwest and the Rust Belt, homeowners are digging in.
For example, in North Dakota, equity products made up 27.74% of last year’s mortgage volume. It was followed by Maine at 26.55% and Wisconsin at 26.31%.
On the other end of the spectrum, the states with the highest percentage of purchase loans were Texas, 53.33%; Arkansas, 50.55%; and Florida at 46.81%. The District of Columbia had a 48.06% purchase share. “These states continue to be propelled by corporate relocations, physical expansion and new buyer demand,” the report said.
However, because of
What Attom found in its first quarter data
In May, Attom Data Solutions released a first quarter total industry volume report, which on a market share basis for purchase and refi, showed a different trend.
It found 1.57 million mortgages were produced during the period, down 13% from the fourth quarter, but up 5% year-over-year.
Purchase loan volume was 19% lower versus the fourth quarter, with refi originations down by 7% and home equity lines of credit down 12%. But compared with the first quarter of 2025, HELOC volume was 5% higher.
HELOCs had a 17.3% share for the first quarter, unchanged from the previous period. Refis accounted for 45.6% of all loans in the Attom report, up from 42.7%, while purchase was 37%, compared with 40% in the fourth quarter.
“Purchase, refinancing and home-equity lending all posted declines from the previous quarter, continuing a seasonal trend we’ve seen during the start of the year over the past four years,” said Attom CEO Rob Barber, in a press release issued in May. “However, purchase activity stood out with home-buying loans falling to a 12-year low, as elevated home prices and higher mortgage rates continued to strain affordability for many buyers.”
To get its findings, Attom analyzed recorded mortgage and deed of trust data for one-to-four unit homes, along with condominiums and townhomes.
