Who Is Hiding All The Refinances?

Refinancing your home was definetely at the center of the economic party a couple of years ago. Not any more, the number of refinances in the Santa Barbara area has slowed to a trickle.

I am going to have to change the way I format my chart pretty soon, because in some areas the number of purchase loans is outnumbering the amount of refinance loans being done in a given month.

The Santa Barbara, Goleta, Carpinteria, Montecito areas haven't quite seen the number drop that far yet, but it is the lowest it has been in years.

A year ago, all I kept hearing was that this year could possibly end up being one of the biggest refinance markets we would ever see. The folks predicting this were seeing the huge number of loans that were going to be adjusting and determining that they would all refinance.

Many borrowers were opting for programs like a fixed for 5 year loan and those loans are all about to adjust, if they aren't already. I guess the borrowers are just not being hit with the large adjustments up in their payments and or they are stuck with the loan they have since lending standards have tightened.

Whatever the reason, the refinance party is over. Someone turn out the lights.