With the benchmark 30-year mortgage rate nearing a 20-year high, mortgage loan application volume plummeted over 14 percent last week, with a 13 percent drop in applications to purchase a home, both in the absolute and on a seasonally adjusted basis. And with last week’s plummeting, purchase mortgage application volume was nearly 40 percent lower than at the same time last year, according to data from the Mortgage Bankers Association.
At the same time, the probability of the Federal Reserve raising the federal funds (“interest”) rate by at least another full percentage point by the end of the year is holding at “100 percent” and the share of applications for adjustable rate mortgages (ARM) ticked up from 10 to 12 percent overall. And as we outlined last month and shouldn’t catch any plugged-in readers by surprise, pending home sales in San Francisco have been down over 40 percent on a year-over-year basis since mid-September.
I think that’s probably because homes are overpriced.
Or could it be that 30yr fixed mtg rates are now at a 20 yr high of 7%?
Which would still be below a long-term average of closer to 8 percent.
UPDATE: Purchase mortgage activity ticked down another 2 percent over the past week on both a seasonally adjusted and absolute basis but was only 39 percent lower than at the same time last year. At the same time, pending home sales in San Francisco are down nearly 50 percent and dropping.