Mortgage Purchase And Refinancing Applications Fall

The highest interest rates in over 7 years took their toll on mortgage activity in the October 12 week, with purchase applications for home mortgages falling a seasonally adjusted 6 percent while applications for refinancing fell 9 percent. Despite the sizable seasonally adjusted decline, unadjusted purchase applications remained 2 percent higher than in the same week a year ago. The refinance share of mortgage activity decreased by 0.9 percentage points to 38.1 percent. After jumping 9 basis points in the previous week, the average interest rate on 30-year fixed rate conforming mortgages ($453,100 or less) rose another 5 basis points to 5.10 percent, the highest level since February 2011.