The number of mortgage applications in the U.S. jumped this week after a brief decline last week, amid signs of a broader modest downward trend in housing market activity.
Mortgage applications “increased 5.7 percent from one week earlier,” the Mortgage Bankers Association said on Wednesday, drawing data from its Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey.
The increase represents a reversal from last week’s numbers, which indicated a decline in week-over-week mortgage applications.
The overall trend, meanwhile, is one of cooling off after well over a year of an unrelenting real estate market throughout the country. Year-over-year mortgage applications last month fell by nearly 24 percent. Construction permits for new housing were also lately down; mortgage credit availability has also declined, a sign of tightening standards as the economy improves.
MBA Associate Vice President of Economic and Industry Forecastin Joel Kan also noted on Wednesday that the U.S. purchase index “decreased for the second week in a row to its lowest level since May 2020, and has now declined on an annual basis for the past three months,” something he attributed to “potential buyers continu[ing] to be put off by extremely high home prices and increased competition.”
Kan noted that housing prices jumped nearly 20 percent in the past year; spiraling housing prices have recently caused many homebuyers to stop looking for homes for the time being.