Total mortgage application volume dropped by 52.7% year-over-year last week as rapidly rising interest rates slash refinance demand from prospective buyers. The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages with conforming loan balances rose from 5.40% to 5.65% last week, and the average rate rose even higher to 6.28% this week.
The latest mortgage rate hurdle caused only a slight uptick in mortgage applications as buyers begin to pull back from home sales in the first phases of what some experts say could be a long and drawn out market deceleration, CNBC reports.
“Mortgage rates increased faster than at any point in history. We could be facing years, not months, of fewer home sales, and Redfin still plans to thrive. If falling from $97 per share to $8 doesn’t put a company through heck, I don’t know what does,” wrote Redfin CEO Glenn Kelman on the company’s website.
Advertisement
Related Stories
Housing Policy + Finance
The Garden State Takes a New Approach to Expanding Affordable Housing
Recent legislation in New Jersey could provide inspiration for eliminating affordable housing hurdles in other places with strong housing markets
Affordability
Will NAR's Landmark Commissions Settlement Lower Housing Costs?
The $418 million deal changes long-standing rules—written and unwritten—that consumers claim inflated sales commissions for home sellers, including new-home builders
Government + Policy
Biden's Proposed Fixes for Housing Affordability
In his State of the Union address, President Biden proposed several actions to improve housing affordability and supply