St Casimirs Mortgage Minute

1 Million-Plus More Homeowners Can Benefit From Refi Post-Brexit

Black Knight Financial Services says the drop in mortgage rates following the Brexit vote means 1.3 million more borrowers could benefit from refinancing, boosting the total to 8.7 million — the highest number since 2012. Newly eligible borrowers currently have rates at or above 4.25 percent. "Unlike the 66 percent of borrowers Black Knight identified a few months ago, who could have both likely qualified for and had incentive to refinance in the spring of 2015, but for whatever reason didn't do so, the vast majority of these new candidates did not have such incentive last year," said Ben Graboske, data & analytics executive vice president at Black Knight. "This has produced a nearly 50 percent increase in the number of borrowers with new-found incentive to refinance, which may well be creating a more pronounced impact on refinance applications and originations as these borrowers rush to take advantage." However, purchase applications are not getting the same boost from lower mortgage rates, as the savings are offset by higher home prices.

From "1 Million-Plus More Homeowners Can Benefit From Refi Post-Brexit"
CNBC (08/01/16) Olick, Diana