7.0% Interest Rates Hit Weekly Mortgage Demand Hard

• Total mortgage application volume fell by 5.6% last week, impacting both current homeowners and potential buyers, attributed to higher mortgage rates.
• The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages decreased slightly to 7.04%, with points increasing slightly, but still a quarter percentage point higher than the previous year.
• Higher rates led to a 7.0% decrease in applications for home loan refinancing compared to the previous week and a 1.0% drop compared to the same period last year.
• Mortgage demand for purchasing homes also dropped by 5.0% for the week and was 12.0% lower than the same week in the previous year, with Chief Economist of the Mortgage Bankers Association, Mike Fratanoni, noting that the lack of existing inventory remains a primary constraint, though demand for newly built homes increased by 19.0% year over year in January.

(Source: CNBC)