Mortgage Demand Falls 10 Percent
Home loan demand slipped 10.7 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis for the week ending December 18, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association.
On an unadjusted basis, lending volume decreased 10.9 percent compared with the previous week, and the year-over-year is unknown because the MBA pulled that data a few months back (I wonder why?).
The refinance index fell 10.1 percent from the previous week, while seasonally adjusted purchases dropped 11.6 percent.
The unadjusted purchase index slipped 13.4 percent compared with the previous week and was 32.7 percent lower than the same week in 2008.
That pushed the refinance share of mortgage activity to 75.9 percent of total applications from 75.2 percent a week prior.
Mortgage rates were pretty flat week-to-week, with the 30-year fixed remaining unchanged at 4.92 percent and the 15-year fixed increasing a single basis point to 4.34 percent.
The one-year adjustable-rate mortgage was also unchanged at 6.52 percent, but the ARM-share of total apps still decreased to 3.8 percent from 4.1 percent.
The MBA’s weekly survey covers more than half of all retail, residential home loan applications, but doesn’t factor out duplicate or declined apps.
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