Mortgage application volume barely moved last week, falling 0.5% compared with the previous week, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association’s seasonally adjusted index.
Rates, meanwhile, dropped back a little bit last week, but they’re still near a 22-year high.
The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages with conforming loan balances ($647,200 or less) decreased to 7.06% from 7.30%, with points falling to 0.73 from 0.88 (including the origination fee) for loans with a 20% down payment. That rate was 3.24% the same week one year ago.
The slight drop was enough to move the needle a tiny bit on refinance demand. Those applications rose 0.2% for the week but were still 85% lower than the year before. There are now precious few qualified borrowers who don’t already have a rate lower than what is being offered today.
Mortgage applications to buy a home fell 1% for the week and were 41% lower year over year. Real estate agents and homebuilders alike say buyer traffic has slowed to a crawl. Agents say today’s buyers see no sense of urgency, and some may be waiting for rates to pull back more significantly.
