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Purchase Volume Takes a Hit, Responding to Rising Interest Rates

Posted To: MND NewsWire

Rising interest rates continued to take a toll on mortgage applications during the week ended April 19. Even purchase mortgage volume fell victim to the increasing rates after rising for six consecutive weeks. The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) said its Market Composite Index, a measure of mortgage loan application volume, declined by 7.3 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis from the previous week. On an unadjusted basis, the Index was down 6 percent. The Refinance Index had surged 39 percent at the end of March co-incident with the largest one week drop in mortgage rates in 10 years but has now erased most of those gains. It declined another 11 percent last week and the refinancing share of total applications dropped to 39.4 percent from 41.5 percent during the week ended April 12. The...(read more)