House Lattitudes! Mortgage Purchase Demand Remains Down 11% From Same Week Last Year (At Least Mortgage Rates Are Retreating)

Confounded Interest ^ | 03/13/2024 | Anthony B. Sanders

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We are experiencing a situation known as House Latitudes. Where mortgage rates are so high that the mortgage market is struggling to recover from Bidenomics.

Mortgage applications increased 7.1 percent from one week earlier, according to data from the Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA) Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey for the week ending March 8, 2024.

The Market Composite Index, a measure of mortgage loan application volume, increased 7.1 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis from one week earlier. On an unadjusted basis, the Index increased 8 percent compared with the previous week. The seasonally adjusted Purchase Index increased 5 percent from one week earlier. The unadjusted Purchase Index increased 6 percent compared with the previous week and was 11 percent lower than the same week one year ago.

The Refinance Index increased 12 percent from the previous week and was 5 percent higher than the same week one year ago.

The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages with conforming loan balances ($766,550 or less) decreased to 6.84 percent from 7.02 percent, with points decreasing to 0.65 from 0.67 (including the origination fee) for 80 percent loan-to-value ratio (LTV) loans.