Despite a drop in the benchmark 30-year mortgage rate to only 6.61 percent, the decline of which has since leveled off, mortgage credit availability dropped 4.6 percent in December, with a 1.7 percent drop in the availability index for Jumbo loans, as indexed by the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA).
As such, the MBA’s mortgage credit availability index (MCAI) is down nearly 11 percent on a year-over-year basis and back down to its lowest level in over a decade, with origination volumes continuing to drop, including a sudden decline in applications for renovation loans.