Although the week ending Jan. 25 showed an 8.1% drop in seasonally adjusted mortgage applications, as reported by the Mortgage Bankers Association, this week the numbers seem to have bounced back somewhat, with mortgage applications for the week ending Feb. 1 up 3.4%, which has helped to assuage investor fears that the mortgage boom was coming to an end. In this video, Motley Fool financial analyst Matt Koppenheffer tells investors what a mortgage boom means for some of the big banks such as Wells Fargo (WFC +0.36%) and JPMorgan Chase (JPM +1.29%), who else could be affected by such a trend, and why we need to take these weekly numbers with a grain of salt when trying to establish broader trends.
Wait! Don't Bury the Mortgage Boom Yet!
By Matt Koppenheffer – Feb 6, 2013 at 6:00PM
NYSE: WFC
Wells Fargo
Market Cap
$263B
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(0.36%) $0.30
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$84.16
Price as of November 19, 2025 at 4:00 PM ET
Rethinking a recently emerging mortgage trend.
About the Author
Matt is the head of the Coverage Team for The Motely Fool's premium products. Previously, he's been . Matt is a heavy user of AI tools and is working on harnessing them to help Fool members. Previously, Matt was GM of Motley Fool Ascent, led The Motley Fool Deutschland, has been an investor on various Fool services, and co-hosted the podcast "Where the Money Is". He also co-authored the book The Astonishing Collapse of MF Global. Matt started his career in San Francisco as a technology-focused investment banker and also worked at a $15 billion private equity company. When he's thinking about how to make Fools smarter, happier, and richer, you can usually find Matt running trails or making a mess in the kitchen. He's a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, but is a lifelong fan of Penn State football.