Webinar invite: Should single-family investors consider new construction?

On Thursday, March 5, we will hold a special webinar at 3:00 p.m. ET (12:00 p.m. PT). The webinar will be geared towards mom-and-pop single-family investors/landlords.  

ResiClub will ask the team behind the Lennar Investor Marketplace why they think small and midsized single-family investors should consider new construction—the pros, the cons, and the math.

To join the March 5th webinar, use this Zoom link to register: https://zoom.us/meeting/register/RQcEK0wlR86owEa4m3p8eA

Add the webinar to your calendar 👇

Refis are gaining momentum—just look at mortgage giant UWM’s earnings

After taking a big macro hit during the 2022 rate-shock, United Wholesale Mortgage’s refinance volume has found its footing—and keeps climbing:

• 2020: $140B

• 2021: $139B

• 2022: $36B

• 2023: $14B (cycle low)

• 2024: $43B

• 2025: $70B

That’s a +387% increase in UWM’s refi volume since its 2023 cycle low.

Even without a full refi boom, refinance volume is slowly coming back, with the average 30-year fixed mortgage rate as tracked by Freddie Mac down to 5.98% last week—or 1.81 bps below its cycle high of 7.79% in October 2023.

Many recent borrowers who took on higher mortgage rates (2023–2024 vintages) are jumping at the opportunity to refinance and secure some payment relief. At the same time, UWM’s purchase volume has remained relatively steady in the $90B–$96B range over the past few years. The lack of a sharp decline in purchase volume following the rate-shock is impressive when you consider the macro picture: While U.S. existing home sales fell sharply in 2022, UWM’s purchase volume held steady as the wholesale channel gained share during the downturn. Many smaller lenders pulled back or exited, and brokers consolidated volume toward large, price-competitive players. UWM kept pushing forward. That purchase stability gives UWM a great base to operate from as refis improve.

While UWM’s refinance rebound is happening faster than most mortgage firms (and as a result, it’s taking refinance market share), refinance activity overall is slowly bouncing off the rate-shock lows.

The Mortgage Refinance Index reading for the fourth week of February, by year:

• February 2018 —> 1,169

• February 2019 —> 1,134

• February 2020 —> 3,594

• February 2021 —> 3,850

• February 2022 —> 1,686

• February 2023 —> 400

• February 2024 —> 396

• February 2025 —> 784

• February 2026 —> 1,638

Zoomed out, mortgage refinance applications started 2026 still in “historically soft” territory (bottom 25th percentile). However, over the past week, they crossed the threshold into the bottom of “historically normal” refinance levels (25th–75th percentile).

ResiClub prefers to call this upswing a “refi boomlet” rather than a “refi boom.” We use the term boomlet because there’s a ceiling on how big this refinance pop can get—and how long it can last—without a more substantial drop in mortgage rates. After all, according to the latest FHFA data, 68.6% of U.S. mortgage borrowers still hold an interest rate below 5.0%.

That said, the more time U.S. homeowners have to adjust to today’s mortgage rates, the more some may be enticed to refinance or tap their equity through a HELOC or home equity loan.

In case you’re curious, below is the latest Mortgage Purchase Application Index reading.

Purchase applications have been slower to rebound from their rate-shock trough than refinances.

ResiClub is currently fielding two industry surveys. If you’re in one of these groups, we’d love your participation. The results will be published in ResiClub and across some traditional media outlets.

Are you a real estate agent or a team leader at a residential brokerage? If so, you’re invited to participate in the 2026 Cotality–ResiClub Brokerage Survey.

Are you a single-family rental (SFR) owner/operator/manager or a build-to-rent (BTR) owner/operator/developer? Or do you work on the institutional side of the housing market? If so, we’re inviting you to participate in the Roofstock–ResiClub BTR and SFR Housing Survey.

ResiClub Terminal is a powerful tool for peeling back the layers of the housing market

Back in 2023, the single-family home below at 19374 Rizzuto St. in Venice, FL (34293 ZIP Code) was purchased for $565,000. By the time the transaction closed, the housing market had already begun to enter a period of cyclical cooling—with Florida seeing a sharper power swing to buyers and some pockets of Southwest Florida moving into what ResiClub considers “correction mode.” By February 2025, the homeowner listed the property above for sale at $519,000. After 4 subsequent price cuts and a brief delisting, the home finally sold in December 2025 for $455,000—or -19.5% below its 2023 sales price. While that’s certainly a material home price correction from its Pandemic Housing Boom peak, we should note that the December 2025 sales price ($455K) was still +38.7% above the $328,000 price the same property fetched in 2017. As we’ve closely documented for ResiClub readers for the past few years, Southwest Florida has been one of the two weakest regional chunks of the U.S. housing market. Among major U.S. metros, only Austin, Texas metro area (-27.8% since its 2022 peak) has seen a larger overall price drop this cycle than metros in Punta Gorda, FL (-25.3% from its 2022 peak), Cape Cape Coral-Fort Myers, FL (-19.1% from its 2022 peak), and North Port-Sarasota-Bradenton, FL (-17.6% from its 2022 peak). The North Port-Sarasota metro is where the home highlighted above is located. Pulling from the ResiClub Terminal, home prices in the ZIP Code where that home is located (34293) are down -21.2% from their Pandemic Housing Boom peak, with 38.2% of Pandemic Housing Boom gains still remaining in that ZIP Code. That aligns closely with what happened to this home. With the ResiClub Terminal, you can quickly pinpoint the neighborhoods where this dynamic is playing out.

Firms that would like a demo of the ResiClub Terminal, should email [email protected]