Mortgage refinance demand surges 27%, as interest rates drop for the third straight week

Barclays downgrading major homebuilders from overweight now to equal weight, projecting a new ceiling on the sector, partially due to rising land and labor costs. Now take a look at this weekly mortgage data out just a short time ago. Want to get straight over to Diana Olick, who joins us with those latest numbers. Good morning to you, Diana. What do we got? Good morning, Andrew. Mortgage applications, mortgage rates actually fell again last week. Not a huge drop, but enough to push a little surge in refinance demand. The average rate on the 30 year fixed for conforming loans fell to 6.67% from 6.69% for loans with 20% down. Again, not huge, but it was the third straight week of declines. As a result, applications to refinance a home loan surged 27% week to week and were 42% higher than the same week a year ago. The percentages are large, likely because the base volume is still so small. Most borrowers today have mortgages with rates well below what is being offered today. From 2020 through the first half of 2022, rates were below 4%. Now, applications for a mortgage to buy a home fell 4% for the week, but were 4% higher than the same week a year ago. Demand from homebuyers has been gaining over the last several weeks as more inventory comes onto the market. Mortgage rates, though, did gain 10 basis points to start this week. That's according to a separate survey from Mortgage News Daily. That erased a lot of last week's drop, but they could swing in either direction today, as you know, with the release of the monthly consumer price index. That's the last piece of the economic puzzle, really, before the Fed decides what to do with rates next week. Andrew? Very good. I don't know if it's very good, but it's good. It's good to see you. Thank you very much.