Thanks to a slight drop in rates, total mortgage demand jumped 8.5% for the week, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association’s latest survey…(MBA)
- REFIS: The Refinance Index was up 9.0% for the week but is still down 50% from the same time last year.
- PURCHASES: The Purchase index was also up 9.0% but was down 7.0% year-over-year.
NOTE: The refinance share of mortgage activity decreased to 49.5% of total applications from 49.9% the previous week.
Unfortunate global events have granted consumers a slight reprieve from raising rates for the week ending March 4th…
- 30-YR FIXED: The average contract interest rate fell 6 basis points to 4.09%, this is still 83 basis points higher than one year ago.
- 15-YR FIXED: The average contract interest rate fell 8 basis points to 3.39%, this is still 73 basis points higher than one year ago.
Joel Kan, MBA’s Associate Vice President of Economic and Industry Forecasting, noted that rates fell for the first time in 12 weeks which benefited both purchases and refis…
- “A 6-basis-point decline in the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage led to a slight rebound in total refinance activity, with a larger gain in government refinances….Purchase activity also increased, as prospective buyers acted on lower rates and the early start of the spring buying season. The average loan size remained close to record highs, with higher-balance loan applications continuing to dominate growth.”
It is going to be interesting to see what happens this next few weeks and months. On Thursday, we will be getting the latest inflation data and, obviously, we all hope the conflict in Ukraine is over soon, but if it persists it will be interesting to see if rates react more to the instability or rising inflation…
