Despite the average 30-year mortgage rate having dropped a full percentage point over the past quarter and now “stabilizing” above 6 percent, purchase mortgage application volume in the U.S. remains down 20 percent on a year-over-year basis, with a seasonally adjusted drop over the past week.
And with purchase mortgage activity having dropped 39 percent from 2022 to 2023, purchase mortgage activity is down over 50 percent from 2022 to 2024, none of which should catch any plugged-in readers by surprise.