Wednesday, August 22, 2018
Mortgage Purchase And Refinancing Applications Rise
Posting the first increase in 6 weeks, purchase applications for home
mortgages rose a seasonally adjusted 3 percent in the August 17 week.
Unadjusted, purchase applications were up 1 percent from the prior week
and back up in positive year-on-year territory, standing 1 percent above
the level last year at this time. Applications for refinancing rose 6
percent from the previous week, with the refinance share mortgage
activity increasing by 1.1 percentage points to 38.7 percent. The
average interest rate on 30-year fixed rate conforming mortgages
($453,100 or less) remained unchanged from the previous week at 4.81
percent. Though mortgage rates have not moved higher since May, they are
still up about 70 basis points year-on-year, keeping home ownership
affordability at a lower level than last year and weakening the housing
market. Later this morning, the release of existing home sales data for
July will provide additional insight into housing market strength or
lack thereof. In June, existing home sales were down 0.6 percent from
May and 2.2 percent lower than a year ago.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment