Zillow Reports Surge in Refi Loan Requests

Amidst the announcement of President Barack Obama's housing plan, and with mortgage rates reaching historic lows, Seattle-based real estate web site ""Zillow.com"":http://www.zillow.com reports record-breaking traffic and loan request activity within its free marketplace for custom mortgage quotes.
Over the past three months, as mortgage rates dropped to their lowest levels in years, consumer interest in refinancing has soared, the company said. More than 70,000 loan requests were submitted from borrowers on ""Zillow Mortgage Marketplace"":http://www.zillow.com/mortgage/ in the December through February time period, with the average number of daily loan requests up 142 percent from November 2008. According to Zillow, refinancing requests accounted for more than 60 percent of all its consumer loan requests over this three-month period.
Meanwhile, increased consumer interest in refinancing and dropping home prices resulted in a series of record traffic months for Zillow.com. February traffic reached 7.9 million unique users, which is up 60 percent year-over-year.
Lloyd Frink, Zillow's president, said, ""It's been fascinating to watch homeowners and potential buyers respond so quickly to these record low mortgage rates and to the economic news of the day. We saw borrowers react quickly when rates dove below 5 percent in early February; loan requests rose 16 percent compared to the previous week. Likewise, when President Obama announced his refinancing plan in late February, loan requests rose 56 percent over the average daily rate and remained at higher levels for several days, even though there was no movement in rates.""
Zillow Mortgage Marketplace is the new business arm of Zillow, and the company explained that through this online portal, it aims to transform the process of obtaining a mortgage and finding the best rates by adding transparency and competition to an area that hasn't before existed. Borrowers can shop for loans anonymously and get an unlimited number of customized rates directly from lenders, free of charge. On average, each consumer loan request receives 14 customized loan quotes from lenders, with the first quote coming within seconds, Zillow said.
In addition, interactive mortgage rate charts show the most current mortgage rates being offered on Zillow Mortgage Marketplace, making it easy for borrowers to see when rates drop and get a sense of a rate they may be able to secure.