Mortgage Purchase Applications Fall, Refinancing Rises

As mortgage rates continued to edge higher, purchase applications for home mortgages fell a seasonally adjusted 1.0 percent in the March 2 week, shrinking the year-on-year gain of the unadjusted Purchase Index to just 1.0 percent. But applications for refinancing, which are usually even more sensitive to interest rates, increased by 2.0 percent from the previous week, with the refinancing share of mortgage activity remaining unchanged at 41.8 percent. The average interest rate on 30-year fixed rate conforming mortgages ($453,100 or less) rose 1 basis point to 4.65 percent, the highest level since January 2014. The previous week's results included an adjustment for the Presidents' Day holiday.