Oh, I don’t know. There’s gold in that thar spin:
“Although short-term rates have risen, long-term interest rates, (although higher than last year) are still historically very low. The refinance market has decreased to some extent because of the rate increases. However, many clients are refinancing from mortgages tied to short-term rates to a longer-term program (10-year ARM’s and 30-year fixed). An increasing number of consumers are attracted to interest-only mortgages to offset higher rates and to significantly lower the monthly payments.”

So the refi business is composed of people getting into less risky mortgages (the 10 yr ARMs and fixeds) and people getting into really risky mortgages (interest-onlys) because they can’t afford their payments.

I sure would like to know the relative percentages, because it would say a lot about the future direction of the Sarasota market. If they now are writing 10-15% non-amortizing, then the market is going to fall considerably over the next three years.