With the benchmark mortgage rate having dropped to an all-time low of 3.23 percent last week, mortgage application volume in the U.S. inched up 1.0 percent over the past week, with refinancing activity having actually slipped 2 percent and purchase activity having ticked up 6 points, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association.
On a year-over-year basis, however, refinancing activity is still up 210 percent while purchase activity is down 19 percent (versus 20 percent the week prior).
And in California, purchase loan activity is still down 30.9 percent on a year-over-year basis, but that’s versus a year-over-year deficit of 34.1 percent the week prior and versus a 37.5 percent drop in Washington State and a 50.5 percent drop in New York.
UPDATE: While refinancing activity slipped another 3 percent over the past week, it’s still running 201 percent higher than at the same time last year and driving mortgage market stats. At the same time, while purchase mortgage activity ticked up another 11 percent over the past week it but remains down 10 percent on a year-over-year basis.
And in California, while purchase loan activity ticked up 11 percent over the past week as well, it’s still down 22.3 percent versus the same time last year.