Mortgage loan application volumes to either purchase or refinance a home in the U.S. dropped 8.1 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis over the past week and were down 6 percent in the absolute, with a 10 percent drop in applications to purchase a home, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association.
As such, purchase activity is down 12 percent on a year-over-year basis while refinancing activity is currently running 52 percent lower than at the same time last year. And as we noted yesterday, purchase activity in San Francisco is down, by double digits, as well.