While mortgage loan application volume to purchase a home in the U.S. ticked up one (1) percent on a seasonally adjusted basis over the past week, it continued to tick down on a year-over-year basis and was 30 percent lower than at the same time last year, according to data from the Mortgage Bankers Association’s.
At the same time, the probability of the Federal Reserve raising the federal funds (“interest”) rate by at least 0.75 percentage points this afternoon is holding at “100 percent,” based on an analysis of the futures market and with the average rate for a benchmark 30-year mortgage having doubled over the past year and poised to rise.
UPDATE: As projected, the Federal Reserve has just announced another rate hike of 75 basis points or three-quarters of a percent for federal funds, its third straight 75 basis point hike in as many months, which was another unprecedented move.
As we foreshadowed at the end of last year, the higher federal funds rate has pushed the 10-year treasury and mortgage rates up, which has translated into “less purchasing power for buyers, fewer sales and downward pressure on home values,” as we projected as well.
UPDATE: Purchase mortgage application volume ticked down another one (1) percent over the past week but was only down 29 percent on a year-over-year basis.