Mortgage Application Activity Rises 7.1 Percent As Interest Rates Fall

Applications for U.S. home mortgages rose last week as interest rates fell, an industry group said on Wednesday.

The Mortgage Bankers Association said its seasonally adjusted index of mortgage application activity, which includes both refinancing and home purchase demand, rose 7.1 percent in the week ended July 29.

The MBA's seasonally adjusted index of refinancing applications rose 7.8 percent, while the gauge of loan requests for home purchases rose 5.1 percent.

"Factors such as negative equity and a weak job market continue to constrain borrowers," Michael Fratantoni, MBA's Vice President of Research and Economics, said in a statement.

While purchase activity increased last week, it remained low by historical standards, he said.

Even though 30-year mortgage rates are back below 4.5 percent, the refinance index stands at still almost 30 percent below last year's level, Fratantoni pointed out.

Fixed 30-year mortgage rates averaged 4.45 percent in the week ending July 29, down 12 basis points from the week before.

The refinance share of mortgage activity increased to 70.1 percent of total applications from 69.6 percent the week before.

(Reporting by Alexandra Alper, Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)

Copyright 2011 Thomson Reuters. Click for Restrictions.

Comments

[rmlddotnet]

07:40 PM on 08/28/2011

im retired and my kids are all grown up. my reverse mortgage makes my life easier

[rmlddotnet]

07:42 PM on 08/28/2011

http://www.reversemortgagelendersdirect.com/

[Tarpon22]

07:57 PM on 08/03/2011

If you are buying a house and your going through any of the Top % largest Banks like BofA, Wells Fargo, Chase Bank.

You may want to seek mental evaluation.

The top Banks are as corrupt as they come and they will Foreclose on you for any reason they can find.
Not to mention you loan is probably a Predatory Lender Loan.

RUN from them and head straight to a Credit Union that has no ties to them.

Ron paul 2012

[Janine547]

05:48 PM on 08/03/2011

Great, I'll start looking for the second home in Long Boat Key !

[cats530]

04:56 PM on 08/03/2011

"Think the risk isn’t real? Then why has Wells Fargo bothered to insist that REO buyers sign a new type of addendum, when it has been selling REO for decades? This effort to shift all title risks on to the buyer is a tacit admission of problems. And look at the document itself. The buyer has to initial it in eight places as well as sign it. That’s a clear statement of Wells’ intent to shift the risk to the buyer."

http://livinglies.wordpress.com/2011/08/03/new-foreclosure-problem-defective-title-affects-even-non-foreclosed-property/

[jr3houpe1849]

01:57 PM on 08/03/2011

The housing crisis is not over the banks and realtors want us all to believe that it is but there are 3times the foreclosures coming that have already hit Sit and wait before you jump in and end up in this group a few yesrs down the road

[eugik]

01:55 PM on 08/03/2011

With the amount of foreclosures, short sales and people sitting on negative equity or low credit score, the amount of applications is meaningless. This real estate market is too distorted at the moment to trump the numbers.

[jr3houpe1849]

01:59 PM on 08/03/2011

The last estimate I saw on coming foreclousures was 11 million. 3.5 million have alredy hit

[eugik]

02:17 PM on 08/03/2011

Exactly. My understanding that the process of buying foreclosures/short sales is different from the regular one: for a short sale, you have to have the bank agree on a price which can take months and they can still reject it. My point is that with 7.5 mil of coming foreclosures the selling pressure is higher that the buying one. We still a long way to go from a healthy real estate market.

[globality]

01:25 PM on 08/03/2011

just bought our first home at 4.25% closed last week

3 people at work have just bought homes and 2 people in our circle of friends (which is tiny) bought homes.

This is all in CA Things are picking up

[Realtors Are Liars]

12:42 PM on 08/03/2011

Why buy a house today when you can buy later for 50% less?

[LouGots]

10:43 PM on 08/03/2011

There is is. We have a lot of Obacalypse to go yet.

[Darwin Overson]

12:14 PM on 08/03/2011

This is dumb. Interest rates have little to do with it. It is the time line since the housing market dropped. There is a two year waiting period before those with a foreclosure, short sale or bankruptcy can qualify for FHA loans. Those who lost their homes or filed bankruptcy first are just now able to come off the side lines and qualify. We could turn the market around by getting these people out of the penalty box and back in the market---but that won't happen. Instead, we let them sit and wait the two years out, they rent in the interim and they will trickle into the market.

[Realtors Are Liars]

12:45 PM on 08/03/2011

We can "turn around the market" by letting prices fall. There will be plenty of buyers when that happens but not until then.

[fineartgalaxy]

10:04 AM on 08/03/2011

Banks will not start lending at these rates, not even 6 or 7%. Wait until somebody announces that the economy is recovering and you will see near double digits in interest rates and everybody getting approved and business as usual.