Mortgage Purchase And Refinancing Fall On Rising Interest Rates

As interest rates continued to rise, purchase applications for home mortgages fell 6.0 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis in the February 16 week, putting the unadjusted year-on-year gain in the Purchase Index at 3.0 percent, down 1 percentage point from the prior week. Applications for refinancing, which are even more sensitive to mortgage rates, fell 7.0 percent from the prior week, with the refinancing share of mortgage activity declining to 44.4 percent, the lowest level since July of 2017. The average interest rate on 30-year fixed rate conforming mortgages ($453,100 or less) increased by 7 basis points to 4.64 percent, the highest rate since January 2014.