The streak is over.
After nine straight weeks of increases, the number of mortgage applications for home purchases decreased by 4 percent for the week ending June 19 – though remained 18 percent higher than a year ago. Overall, mortgage applications dropped 8.7 percent from a week earlier.
“Even with high unemployment and economic uncertainty, the purchase market is strong,” said Joel Kan, MBA’s Associate Vice President of Economic and Industry Forecasting “Activity has climbed above year-ago levels for five straight weeks and was 18 percent higher than a year ago last week.”
MBA said refinance applications decreased 12 percent from the previous week and was 76 percent higher than the same week one year ago. The refinance share of mortgage activity decreased to 61.3 percent of total applications from 63.2 percent the previous week. The adjustable-rate mortgage share of activity increased to 3.1 percent of total applications.
“One factor that may potentially crimp growth in the months ahead is that the release of pent-up demand from earlier this spring is clashing with the tight supply of new and existing homes on the market,” Kan said. “Additional housing inventory is needed to give buyers more options and to keep home prices from rising too fast.”