US Mortgage Applications Jump to Refinance or Purchase a Home
(Bloomberg) — US mortgage applications to refinance or purchase a home each jumped last week, even as borrowing costs hovered just below 7%.
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The Mortgage Bankers Association's measure of refinancing climbed 15.6% in the week ended June 6, the first increase in a month and the biggest jump since early April, according to data released Wednesday. MBA's index of home-purchase applications advanced 10.3% to the highest level in two months.
The burst of borrowing activity comes as the contract rate on a fixed 30-year mortgage ticked up to 6.93% last week. But purchase and refinancing gauges both remain well below their pre-pandemic levels. Economists and real estate agents have said that a sustained drop in home financing costs is needed to reinvigorate the housing market, which is also hamstrung by high prices.
The MBA survey, which has been conducted weekly since 1990, uses responses from mortgage bankers, commercial banks and thrifts. The data cover more than 75% of all retail residential mortgage applications in the US.
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