Refinance Mortgage Applications Fall 10 Percent
Applications for US home loans fell sharply last week as rising interest rates hindered demand for refinance loans in the nation's long-suffering housing market. According to the Mortgage Bankers Association's weekly index of mortgage application activity, requests for home loans fell 7.5 percent for the week ending March 25th. The seasonally adjusted index includes applications for home purchase loans and refinance loans.
Real estate insiders say that refinancing demand has taken a big hit as interest rates climb their way back over the 5 percent mark. The data is also hushed by unusually low purchase volume as the market enters what is typically the peak home sales season in the US.
The group's seasonally adjusted index of refinance applications dropped just over 10 percent, while its measure of home purchase loan applications fell just 1.7 percent. The average rate during the week for the nation's most popular home loan, the 30 year fixed-rate mortgage, was 4.92 percent, up sharply from the mortgage type's 4.8 percent average in the previous week.
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