Mortgage application volume barely moved last week, down 0.5% from the previous week, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association’s seasonally adjusted index.
Meanwhile, prices eased a bit last week, but are still near a 22-year high.
The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages with matching loan balances ($647,200 or less) decreased to 7.06% from 7.16%, with points dropping to 0.73 from 0.88 (including origination fees) for loans of 20%. lower payment. That rate was 3.24% in the same week one year ago.
The slight drop was enough to move the needle a bit when asking for refinancing. Those orders were up 0.2% on the week but still 85% lower than a year earlier. There are now a few qualified borrowers who do not actually have a lower rate than what is offered today.
Mortgage applications to buy a home were down 1% during the week and down 41% year over year. Real estate agents and homebuilders alike say the movement of buyers has slowed to a crawl. Dealers say today’s buyers see no sense of urgency, and some may wait for interest rates to fall further.
“Apart from the ARM loan rate, the rates for all other loan types were 3 percentage points higher than they were a year ago. These higher rates continue to put pressure on both buying and refinancing activity, and have added to the ongoing affordability challenges affecting the market,” he said. Joel Kahn, MBA Economist: “
Mortgage rates are starting to rise slightly this week again, according to daily mortgage news, but now all ears are at the Federal Reserve’s meeting on Wednesday. While the Fed is widely expected to raise the price of its funds by 0.75 percentage points, investors are focusing more on what it will signal to future price movements. Some believe the Fed is preparing to end, or at least slow, rate hikes.
“If they go so far as to bring this greatness to market, it will probably be good for the rates at first,” wrote Matthew Graham, chief operating officer of Mortgage News Daily. “If they totally shy away from it, the prices will be bad [Wednesday] afternoon. … Either way, the risk of volatility is high.”
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