Mortgage Purchase Applications Rise, Refinancing Falls

Purchase applications for home mortgages rose a seasonally adjusted 1 percent in the March 16 week, raising the year-on-year gain in the unadjusted Purchase Index by 3 percentage points to 6 percent. But applications for refinancing continued in a decline driven by rising rates, falling 5 percent from the prior week and taking the refinance share of mortgage activity down 1.6 percentage points to 38.5 percent, the lowest level since September 2008. After climbing to the highest level since January 2014 in the prior week, the average interest rate on 30-year fixed rate conforming mortgages ($453,100 or less) fell by 1 basis point to 4.68 percent.