Mortgage applications in the US climbed in the previous week with loans for new home purchases reaching a record-high for the year, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA) weekly survey.
MBA’s index of mortgage application activity, which includes home purchase demand and refinance, rose 4.5 percent during the week ended 30 November on a seasonally adjusted basis.
At the same time, MBA’s index of refinance applications increased 6.1 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis. Its measure of loan requests for home purchases, an indicator of home sales, also rose 0.1 percent, climbing for the fourth consecutive week and hitting another record-high for 2012.
The remortgage share of overall mortgage activity also moved up to 83 percent from last week’s 81 percent.
Meanwhile, the average rate for 30-year fixed rate loans fell by one basis point to 3.52 percent from 3.53 percent. MBA’s survey covers more than 75 percent of all retail residential mortgage applications in the US.
Romesh Navaratnarajah, Senior Editor of PropertyGuru, wrote this story. To contact him about this or other stories email romesh@propertyguru.com.sg
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