Total mortgage demand fell 7.1% for the week thanks to rising rates, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association’s weekly survey…(MBA)
- REFIS: The Refinance Index had a big 13% drop for the week and is now down 53% compared to one year ago.
- PURCHASES: The Purchase Index was only down 2% for the week and is now down 11% year-over-year.
NOTE: The refinance share of mortgage activity fell 4 percentage points for the week to 55.8%.
Mortgage rates continue to rise, but the pace does seem to be slowing…
- 30-YR FIXED: The average contract interest rate increased 8 basis points to 3.7%, 75 basis points higher than a year ago.
- 15-YR FIXED: The average contract interest rate increased to 5 basis points to 3.0%, 57 basis points higher than the same time one year ago.
Joel Kan, MBA’s Associate Vice President of Economic and Industry Forecasting, noted that much of the purchase decline has come from government applications…
- “The decline in purchase activity was led by a 5 percent drop in government applications, compared to a modest less than one percent decline in conventional applications. The relative weakness in government purchase activity continues to contribute to higher loan sizes. The average purchase loan size was $433,500, eclipsing the previous record of $418,500 set two weeks ago.”
REMINDER: Freddie Mac, early this week, released their forecast for 2022 and 2023. They projected rates would level out at 3.6% in 2022 and then rise to 3.9% in 2023.