Mortgage Demand Falls By 6.3% Under Pressure From High Home Prices, Interest Rates – By Nicholas Morgan (IB Times) / Oct 20 2021
Record-high home prices and rising mortgage interest rates are putting downward pressure on the housing market as the total number of applications for new mortgages fell 6.3% last week.
In the Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA) seasonally adjusted mortgage index released on Wednesday, applications for mortgages dropped owing to rising rates and high home prices.
Applications to refinance a mortgage, considered the most sensitive to interest-rate changes, fell 7%. This week’s number is 22% lower than the same time last year.
The U.S. housing market has been saddled with a supply-and-demand dilemma since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic with too little inventory available to meet a ravenous demand.
