Mortgage Purchase Applications Rise, Refinancing Falls

Despite another uptick in mortgage rates, purchase applications for home mortgages rose a seasonally adjusted 3 percent in the March 9 week, raising the year-on-year gain in the unadjusted Purchase Index by 2 percentage points from the prior week back up to 3 percent. But the more interest-rate sensitive applications for refinancing fell 2 percent in the week, taking the refinance share of mortgage activity down 1.7 percentage points to 40.1 percent, its lowest level since September 2008. The average interest rate on 30-year fixed rate conforming mortgages ($453,100 or less) rose 4 basis points from the prior week to 4.69 percent, the highest level since January 2014.